Sport

Pietersen faces a sterner test

LEEDS: You can call the first match of Kevin Pietersen’s reign a fluke, you can hint that the South Africans, having already won the Test series, were not too concerned about the fourth match, but by the end of the one-day series we will know if he has all the qualities to be a great England captain.

Pietersen has made all the right moves so far. He has made it clear in face-to-face talks that he will stand no nonsense from the coach Peter Moores, he has put his arm round the young colt Stuart Broad and urged him to bowl flat out and he has told the maybe man Owais Shah that he wants him to be his No. 3 in the one-day side at least and believes he will be a success.

Now, reluctantly and with many ifs and buts, on the eve of the one-day series which begins at Headingley, he has also been accepted by the doubters among the Press corps whose influence is greater since each of the men from the posh papers has a Test career behind him.

I passed Geoff Miller, the national selector, in the tea room during the late stages of the final Test at the Oval and tried to console him. Like all comedians he has a miserable face. Come on, Mills, I chided him. Things can only get worse. He tried to grin. “It will be all right, Ted. I know we have done the right thing.” And so they have.

Miller will need less convincing if at the end of five one-day games Pietersen has come through intact. The South Africans are a tough bunch, their captain Graeme Smith is seasoned and knowledgeable and willing to back his stars to get the right result. Smith also faces a season defying the in-your-face Australians and that will be easier if he has forced good results at one-day as well as Test level in this country.

Pietersen could not have a sterner examination. He stands 6ft 5in but he seems to have grown a foot since his appointment, he smiles more often, he pays less attention to himself. A month ago he was the No. 4 star batsman in a side led by the best captain in the world and it is remarkable that he has turned things around quickly enough to have that side right behind him.

Pietersen will inject new ideas, a jolt of electricity and a sense that next summer Australia can be beaten; indeed he has already promised that. Now he needs good results and that does not necessarily mean victory in this series so that he and Miller can search out men to plug the weaknesses.

England must find a spinner who can bat and field better than Monty Panesar; it is not easy. It also needs to solve its wicket-keeping ills and after half a dozen attempts it knows that is close to impossible. James Foster of Essex is my own choice, but Matt Prior must prove in the next few days that he can fill the gap first.

The teams:

England: Kevin Pietersen (capt.), Alastair Cook, Ian Bell, Owais Shah, Paul Collingwood, Ravi Bopara, Andrew Flintoff, Matt Prior, Graeme Swann, James Anderson, Ryan Sidebottom, Stuart Broad, Samit Patel, Chris Tremlett, Luke Wright.

South Africa: Graeme Smith (capt.), Hashim Amla, Johan Botha, Jacques Kallis, Herschelle Gibbs, A.B. de Villiers, J.P. Duminy, Mark Boucher, Albie Morkel, Morne Morkel, Andre Nel, Makhaya Ntini, Vernon Philander, Dale Steyn, Justin Ontong.

Umpires: Simon Taufel and Ian Gould. Match referee: Roshan Mahanama.

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