London: In his book KP – The Autobiography, Kevin Pietersen reveals a special letter that he received from Indian batting legend Rahul Dravid.
Dravid and Petersen were teammates for the Royal Challengers Bangalore, during the early seasons of the Indian Premier League. At the time Petersen spoke to Dravid on how to play spin. Petersen’s form was woeful during Bangladesh’s tour of the England in May June 2010.
Pietersen was twice dismissed by Shakib Al-Hasan and was also found wanting against Abdur
Razzak, both left-arm spinners. The South African-born batsman’s struggle against left-arm orthodox spin was well documented at the time.
Dravid wrote in a letter to Pietersen to practice in the nets without pads so that he uses his bat more.
He also praised his ability against spin despite all round criticism.
The former India number three also reminds Pietersen that his advice might not turn out well.
The advice seemed to have helped KP as a couple of years later though, he scored a brilliant 151 against a Sri Lankan side that included left-arm spinner Rangana Herath to win England a Test in Colombo. He repeated his heroics in Mumbai later that year, hitting a sublime 186 against India, which is often considered as his greatest innings as it was on a pitch that was producing venomous spin.
