Kevin Pietersen picks the best bowler he ever faced
Kevin Pietersen has named former Pakistani pacer Mohammad Asif as the best bowler he has faced in his cricketing career. The 36-year-old has highlighted Asif’s “ability to make a batsman feel like the ball was accelerating off the wicket in different directions” as something that troubled him.
Mohammad Asif, who represented Pakistan in 22 Tests, 38 ODIs, and 11 T20Is, was ranked as the second best Test bowler, behind Dale Steyn, back in 2010. However, his career which has been peppered with controversy on and off the field came to an end when he was handed over a seven-year ban by the ICC for the spot-fixing scandal which rocked Pakistan cricket during their tour of England in 2010.
However, the 34-year-old’s ability with the ball has earned him a lot of praise from Kevin Pietersen, who has picked him as the best bowler he has faced, ahead of the likes of Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, or Muttiah Muralitharan.
If I was in good form, he made sure I wasn’t in good form a couple of weeks later after playing him.
Pietersen
"The best bowler I faced was Mohammad Asif, the bowler from Pakistan who got done for (spot)-fixing. Probably not a bad thing because he tormented a lot of batters. Just his ability to make a batsman feel like the ball was accelerating off the wicket in different directions.
"If I was in good form, he made sure I wasn’t in good form a couple of weeks later after playing him.
"If I wasn’t in good form, I knew I wasn’t in good form after playing him for a couple of weeks during a series," Pietersen said while speaking on the Howie Games podcast.
Pietersen had earlier picked Ricky Ponting and Jacques Kallis as the best batsmen he’s played against.
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