Kevin Pietersen says South Africa’s batsmen will have to improve their technique against spin bowling if they want to be competitive in India.
The South African born former England international, who is currently playing for the Dolphins in the Ram Slam T20 series, was asked during an interview on Ballz Radio what he thought of the first Test between India and South Africa and what it takes to win a Test series in India.
‘You’ve got to play spin better,’ Pietersen said. ‘The way Southern Hemisphere guys play spin is not good enough and conducive to the conditions they are playing in at the moment. [AB] De Villiers and [Hashim] Amla apart, the guys don’t play spin well enough.
‘I only learned that from travelling there and spending a lot of time with Rahul Dravid. Just watching some of those batters, their technique against spinners is flawed and that is just because you play on beautiful wickets in South Africa.
‘They’re a young bunch of players. De Villiers and Amla play spin beautifully, but the other guys have got a lot of work to do. It’s not a hard process to go through. It takes some hours of dedication.’
Pietersen has been in scintillating form for the Dolphins, who are currently top of the log having won all four their Ram Slam matches to date. Pietersen scored two consecutive hundreds and a fifty in the last three games.
‘The crowd have been behind me [in Durban],’ he said. ‘It’s quite an emotional thing because it’s where I started. Everywhere I’ve been the South African crowds have been absolutely amazing. It’s very humbling and I’m absolutely loving it.
‘It’s nice when you’re in form and you can pre-empt stuff. Bowlers are on a hiding to nothing. If you get a good wicket and a decent batter who’s in form, who’s not scared of losing his wicket, it’s quite a formidable situation you got going on there.
‘It’s nice to be in form, nice to be getting runs and nice that we’re winning as well. I’ve got no interest in a hundred unless we win. It’s good that the team have won four from four now; top of the log and we’re firing.’
