England great Kevin Pietersen on Tuesday termed Varun Chakravarthy's inclusion in the Indian squad for three ODIs against England as "a great decision" but backed the visitors to fare better against the right-arm spinner in the longer version. Chakravarthy was all over England in the five-T20I series taking 14 wickets in India's 4-1 series win, following which he has been added to the ODI side with the series starting in Nagpur on Thursday.
"The English batters would be better against him in the one-dayers because they can spend more time. It's a longer format, not every ball is an event. But I think it is a great decision (to add Chakravarthy)," Pietersen told media on the sidelines of the launch of Dram Bell Scotch Whisky.
Pietersen termed England's loss in T20Is as a "disaster", adding that the series would have been levelled in Pune if a like-for-like concussion substitution for Shivam Dube had been used instead of tearaway quick Harshit Rana.
"It was a disappointing series from England's perspective. I think that in the fourth T20I, if the concussion substitution had been done correctly, maybe England would have got up there," he said.
"It would have been 2-2 coming to the Wankhede (Stadium for final T20I). It would have been way more on the game. But it didn't happen." Pietersen said India great Yuvraj Singh is "rubbing off" now on Abhishek Sharma who played the "best T20I innings I've ever seen".
"Abhishek is amazing. He had the shades (of Yuvraj).... Obviously, Yuvraj is rubbing off now on Abhishek. His batting was fantastic. It was the best T20 international innings, I've ever seen and I said that to him afterwards,” Pietersen said.
"It was effortless. The stroke play was great, there was no funky shots, no ramping, no sweeping, reverse sweeping. It was just perfection," the former England captain wouldn't stop gushing about the Punjab southpaw's hitting ability.
"India has to try and keep Bumrah fit"
Pietersen emphasised on the point that the India will have to find a way to keep ace fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah fit given there are big ticket assignments in Champions Trophy, IPL and the five-Test tour of England coming up.
"India just has to try and keep Bumrah fit. That's what India need to do over the next few months and that's the big ball that the BCCI have got to toss up. They've got to try and understand and figure out what do they do," he said.
"Do they play him in Champions Trophy? Do they play him in IPL? Do they play a little bit of IPL, a little bit of Champions Trophy? Do they say no to IPL? There are some very big decisions." "What we have seen in this Australia-India series, the public are heavily invested still in Test match cricket," he said.
Hope there are sporting tracks for England series
Pietersen hoped for "sporting wickets" for five-Test series between India and England.
"I think the first four days at Lord's are already sold out so the curators are going to want five-day game because it suits the revenue model. But I think for England to win, you've always got to make sporting conditions. You've always got to leave a bit of grass," he said.
"You've got to trust that the England batters will cope better than the Indian batters. It's a big series for the Indian batters as well. It's tough to bat in England. I hope they've got good, solid guidance, good, solid advice," he said.
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