England’s current tour in Bangladesh is important for a number of reasons. It represents a chance to continue recent momentum in the test arena following the Ashes win last year, it gives Alastair Cook an opportunity to display his captaincy credentials and, perhaps most importantly, it represents the ideal chance for the players to find some form ahead of the English summer.
This final reason is very much the case for one man in particular – Kevin Pietersen. England’s star batsman has struggled of late and he and the team really need him to step up his game sooner rather than later.
The games in Bangladesh so far haven’t exactly gone too well for Pietersen. He has made 69 runs in seven innings on the tour and the latest failure came as England drew their three day match with Bangladesh A in Chittagong.
Batting at No.3 after England were set 284 to win, Pietersen made 20 off 22 balls before being bowled by Mohammad Ashraful as he attempted to sweep the leg spinner. This followed a score of just two in the first innings of the match.
The Hampshire man’s recent displays have been a real concern and even though Andy Flower has continuously backed him to score heavily on this tour, there have to be doubts over the player’s confidence.
Perhaps he just needs one big innings to get the ball rolling, but in an ideal world that should have already come. The three day game against Bangladesh A – during which Pietersen had two chances to shine – presented the perfect opportunity for him to silence the critics by playing a significant innings.
As things stand though, he is going into the Test series short of form and confidence. The talk in the build up to the first Test in Chittagong, which begins on Friday, will be centred on Pietersen and this will add to the pressure on him.
Hopefully, he is just saving his best form for the two test matches against Bangladesh and then the World Twenty20.
England need him to be somewhere near his best during what is an Ashes year and if it does take just one big knock, let’s hope it comes in the first innings of the opening test so we can get back to admiring what a fantastic player he is.
England’s Ashes cricket odds suggest they will struggle in Australia and the whole team will need to be in top form if they are to retain the urn.
Meanwhile, in football news, England are third favourites in the World Cup 2010 online betting but with so many injuries they could struggle in South Africa.
I doubt many of us armchair cricket fans expected to hear the news today that 
Bill McLaren, the voice of rugby to millions, has died at the grand old age of 86, he died at 10:30 this morning in Hawick. He was appointed OBE, CBE and MBE for services to rugby however an online campaign calling for McLaren to be knighted failed last year.
Interesting to see that South Africa have included 25 year old Lonwabo Tsotsobe in their one day international and Test squads bound for India in early February.
South Africa captain 
The news is not very good for England which is now without a batsman in the top 20 after both Andrew Strauss and Kevin Pietersen lost ground following a disappointing Test at the Wanderers by their high standards.
So there we go; England humiliated in Johannesburg, comprehensively beaten by a tighter unit hell bent on finishing the job they failed to do in the 
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