How much will England miss Kevin Pietersen?

There is no doubt that England cricket fans have been brought down to earth slightly by the news that star batsman Kevin Pietersen will miss the remainder of the Ashes series with an Achilles injury.

The injury that has plagued KP during the first two test matches has finally got the better of him and let’s be honest, the news doesn’t actually come as that much of a surprise. The big question though, is – how much will Pietersen be missed by England?

Well, there are several ways of looking at it and there are arguments to suggest that England won’t miss KP too much and that they will miss him a great deal. Let’s go through them…

Why England won’t miss Pietersen

•       He was in pretty ordinary form.
•       The injury was hampering his game and meant that he wouldn’t have been himself for the rest of the series.
•       Further aggravation to the injury could have led to a much more serious problem.
•       It might mean that other players stop relying on him and step up their own game.

Why England will miss Pietersen

•       Quite simply, he is the most feared English batsman.
•       His absence makes the middle order look a lot weaker – 3. Bopara, 4.
Collingwood, 5. Bell.
•       The Australians will think that the initiative will be back in their favour.
•       It would have been extremely likely that KP was going to play a match-winning innings in one of the final three tests – can someone else step up and do the same?

Overall, it is too hard to say which of these arguments has more weight. We will know a lot more as the series goes on. If Bell or Bopara manage to score a century at Edgbaston, the absence of Pietersen might not seem too significant.

If England are exposed and the middle-order fails though, don’t be surprised to see everyone harping on about how England are a one man team. All in all, how England respond in the next test match is absolutely huge so keep an eye on the Third Test odds before placing your Third Test bet and, if you need to get in the mood for some rivalry, check out Betfair’s new fan v fan site.

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