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Former captain of the England cricket team, Kevin Pietersen, is celebrating his 45th birthday on June 27, 2025. Representing England from 2004 to 2014, Pietersen slammed more than 13 thousand international runs across all the three formats of Tests, ODIs and T20Is as he is the third highest run scorer for England in International cricket. His flamboyant strokeplay was at the heart of many of England’s finest performances for a decade. A brazen belief in his own ability, moments of outrageous unorthodoxy and, at times a surprising vulnerability on and off the field have all combined to give him a great box-office appeal. That box-office appeal along with the strokemaking ability made Pietersen a maverick of his own kind. The innings of186 runs against India in the Test series of 2012 is a testament to that. On a surface where many struggled, he stood tall and delivered a key performance for his team.
The England career of Kevin Pietersen began with an ODI series against Zimbabwe in 2004 when Andrew Strauss was rested. He averaged 104 in England’s 4-0 victory. In the subsequent tour of South Africa, he produced three audacious centuries in the series, his unbeaten 100 in 69 balls becoming England's quickest ODI hundred. He went on to reach 1000 one-day runs in just 21 innings - equalling Viv Richards' record. In the 2005 Ashes too, he sealed the return of the urn after 17 years with a stroke-filled 158 at The Oval on the final day of the series. In that series itself he created a record of breaking Ian Botham’s record for hitting most number of sixes in an Ashes Test.
It was the Sri Lankan cricket team’s visit in 2006 that is regarded as one of the many high points of his career. He matched his highest Test score of 158 in the first Test and in the following Test at Edgbaston, it can be said subject to general skepticism that he unveiled the Switch Hit as he reversed his stance to slog-sweep Muttiah Muralitharan for six. There was no more appropriate way for a player of Pietersen's charisma to become the first batsman since Graham Gooch in 1990 to score a century in three successive Test innings in England.
Kevin Pietersen won T20 World Cup 2010 with England in the Caribbean
In his decade of playing cricket for England, he scored 8,181 runs in Test cricket, 4,440 runs in ODIs and 1,176 runs in T20Is. In 2013, he became the highest England run-scorer in all international forms of the game combined. When England was crowned the champions of the T20 format after winning the World Cup in 2010. Kevin Pietersen was the second highest run scorer of that tournament, scoring 248 in six innings at an average of 62.00. His partnership with Craig Kieswetter was pivotal for England to create a match-winning partnership as they chased the target of 148 runs given by Australia with only three overs to spare. He was also named as Player of the Tournament in that series.
A career marred by controversies and disagreements with the coaches and the ECB ended after the English team’s tour of Australia in 2013-14 as Kevin Pietersen was sacked from the team despite being the leading run-scorer. His autobiography published later that year was arguably the most outspoken in cricket history as he launched an emotional attack on those he felt had wronged him. That’s what his legacy was.
