Sports
The greatest men’ international cricketers of the 21st century – Nos. 25 to 23 – R Ashwin, Stuart Broad, Kevin Pietersen
The relentless pursuit of wickets turned Ashwin into cricket’s greatest innovator: at this mad scientist’s command were not just the full range of the offspin spectrum and a carrom ball but a reverse carrom ball too. In T20s, it was not unusual for him to bowl entire overs and spells as a legspinner. He was, at the same time, one of the great classicists, with mesmeric loop and drift and the ability to vary his pace all the way from the high 70s to the low 90s (kph) without losing his length.
That’s how good he was.
Piyush Chawla on Ashwin: Ashwin’s self-belief was his biggest strength. There have been players with skills just as good as his, but the belief and confidence that Ashwin had throughout his career made him really special and played no small part in his extraordinary achievements, especially in Test cricket.
Consistency was key for Ash. He identified the spot that would most likely trouble batters and kept bowling there, backing his subtle skills, but most importantly for a spinner, following the basics.
The ability to revert to basics with such discipline was admirable for Ashwin, especially when under pressure. He turned that into one of his biggest strengths and usually came out on top in pressure situations.
He had the height and therefore his high-arm action and release led to extra bounce, which troubled batters; once you added fielders around the bat, it created a powerful mix, with hesitant batters doubting their defence against a highly skilled spin bowler. Increasingly he became the most difficult bowler to score against in Test matches in India.
But Broad proved himself to be a thinking cricketer of the highest order during a 17-year international career that was as notable for constant reinvention as match-winning prowess. That quality, allied to a fiery competitive spirit, and a showman’s ability to seize the moment, made him an all-formats lock for his country (and captain of the T20I side), before he narrowed his focus to scaling the peaks of Test cricket.
Chris Woakes on Stuart Broad: He’s a fierce competitor. He didn’t leave any stone unturned from a preparation point of view – who he had done well against in the past, how he’d got them out. The clear moment in his career was when he went from trying to bowl awayswingers to become more of an inswing bowler and coming around the wicket to left-handers. For him to acknowledge he needed to change something, do it, and the career he had post that, it was pretty amazing.
I think he was underestimated from a skill point of view. He had an amazing career with Jimmy [Anderson] at the other end. Stuart preferred to get into the battle a little bit more, but at the same time, he had a high level of skill, was very good at working batters out, always liked to set funky fields. That’s where I learned the most from Stuart – getting into the individual battle and not thinking about your own game too much.
He was always a good laugh on and off the field. One of England’s greats who turned up in the big moments and against the big teams – particularly against Australia. When it comes to the Ashes, he’s up there with [Shane] Warne and [Glenn] McGrath.
Overall: 13,797 runs at 44.08 ave
Pietersen was a box office cricketer. A term as much for diplomacy’s sake as the fact that English cricket was never boring when he was playing.
Ian Bell on Pietersen: KP had an amazing presence when he walked into the middle. He possessed the ability and mentality to dominate in all conditions; add to that a fearless attitude. He was a real match-winner.
KP was such a big guy but still had incredible footwork, particularly against spin, and was yet very good against pace bowling. He had the all round package.
There were times that there was a lot of outside noise during his career. But he had an amazing ability to not let that affect his batting. Whatever the situation or whatever the noise, be it a big series against India or the Ashes, he could just focus on the ball and react and play his best style of cricket. He was always brave enough to take the game on, to be aggressive and take the positive option.
Personally, I loved batting with him, because our combination complemented each other’s strengths. The same ball that I drove through cover, he could pick up on the leg side and loft for six.
When Kevin Pietersen was on, there was no one quite like him.
Stats are for the 2000-2025 period