How will captaincy affect Kevin Pietersen's from?

Question

Kevin Pietersen has achieved every English cricket lover's dream job: England Captain.

A lot of people I have spoken to today have been uncertain over his appointment, feeling that the burden of captaincy will affect his batting in a negative manner.

If comparing his predecessor, Vaughan's form (50.98 average when not captain; 36.02 as captain), then this argument seems to be bearing fruition. However, the four previous incumbents before Vaughan all had superior, or only marginally worse records as captain: Hussain 36.04 as captain, 38.10 when not; Stewart 39.22 as captain, 39.59 when not; Atherton 40.58 as captain, 35.25 when not; Gooch 58.72 as captain, 35.93 when not.

Australia's last two captains, Ponting and Waugh, have better record as captain than when in the ranks. Ponting averages 62.00 as captain, and 55.97 when not; Waugh 52.30 when in charge, and 50.44 before taking over.

My belief is that Pietersen will become an even better batsman now that he is the captain. He will want to lead from the front, and will have a more responsible approach to his game.

What are your thoughts?

And have England picked the right man?

Answer 1

Hopefully his performance will go down hill, he does not deserve to be captain anyway.  there will neve rbe a captain like vaughen again for england.

Answer 2

K.P. would seem to have the strength of character for this job. Everything he does both on and off the field will come under the microscope. The press will not put him down. The pressure will be huge. It is anyone's guess how this will affect him. My fear is that he will start to play more conservatively as a result. The fact that he has no captaincy experience is a big question mark too. Many people think that Robert Key would have been a better captaincy choice but would his batting have been up to it?

I applaud Vaughan for having the guts to step down and make himself unavailable for the next match. He has been an excellent captain but he is completely out of form with the bat.  

Answer 3

One can only hazard a guess, but for Englands sake, I hope he succeeds, with the coming Ashes series.

Answer 4

Vaughan took the captaincy after his peak thats why he averaged far less with bat when captain.

Gooch took the captaincy before he reached his peak thats why he averaged more as captain. (Same with Ponting)

Pietersen has yet to reach his peak, so i expect him to average more with the bat as captain because he is still improving with the bat. Plus KP thrives under pressure, and as you know the England captain is always under pressure

Answer 5

The Problem I have with Pietersen as captain is the worry that it could take away is match winning abilities and could tone him down a little in the way he bats which isnt good for the game at all and especially for England.

Assuming the KP can handle the pressure, which surely someone with his self confidence will be able to handle, then his cricketing knowledge will allow him to set inventive fields and with the help of close friends Andrew Strauss and Paul Collingwood (assuming they keep their places for the foreseeable future) will be able to give him valuable advice with their previous experience captaining their country to help England's newest captain out.

Answer 6

I don't think that the captaincy will affect Kevin Pietersen form. He is responsible and England will do very well under him. England are a very good team.  

Answer 7

At first I wasn’t sure if I overly liked the idea of him being the new captain but now that I’ve had a few hours to thing about it I think it’s a good decision.

There is no doubt that KP has matured as a cricketer in the last few years and has become more experienced all round so it's probably a given that he could thrive in the role. He's a great player anyway so will probably relish the responsibility of the captaincy and all that it brings. He’ll want to lead by example and make sure his team are working to the best of their abilities by showing how good the team can be and I think he has the capacity to inspire other people in that way. I really hope he can make a success of it and bring some good, new ideas to the table. He seems like the type of player that can make some really innovative decisions.

And look what impact he already has off the field with young kids, perhaps it will inspire even more to take up cricket.

Answer 8

I think pietersen was the ideal man for the job in this situation. I agree  i think his batting will get better with his new role as captain.  

Answer 9

time will clear the picture.. i think captaincy not affect his batting