Former England star Kevin Pietersen has launched a scathing attack on the current Test side following their 4–1 Ashes series defeat to Australia, saying the team lacks the quality to challenge top sides like Australia and India.
Pietersen said that apart from a handful of players — captain Ben Stokes, Joe Root, Jofra Archer, Jacob Bethell and Harry Brook “with a brain” — the rest of the squad does not look capable of competing at the highest level.
He added that despite Australia missing key names such as Josh Hazlewood for the entire series and skipper Pat Cummins for most of it, and with several senior batters battling form and fitness issues, England still failed to take advantage. Even England’s aggressive ‘Bazball’ approach, he said, was “buried” by a more disciplined Australian outfit.
One of the few positives for England was Root ending his century drought in Australia and the team finally snapping an 18-match winless run there with a two-day victory in Melbourne. However, they still failed to convert that into a 2–3 final series scoreline.
Following the Sydney Test, ECB chief executive Richard Gould confirmed that a comprehensive review of the tour is underway, covering preparation, planning, performances and player behaviour. Pietersen responded on social media platform X, offering to help the investigation “for free”, reiterating that the current squad simply is not good enough.
He said he had also experienced tours where teams were simply outplayed, and that even ideal preparation would not have saved England this time. According to him, “optics” and public scrutiny under the leadership of Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes have made the criticism sharper.
Pietersen also singled out young batter Asa Tribe as a rising talent worth following. Tribe, who has represented Jersey in ODIs and T20Is and plays county cricket for Glamorgan, is currently featuring for Paarl Royals in the SA20. Pietersen urged fans to “watch him bat”.
Tribe has scored 106 runs in four SA20 innings so far, including a fifty. He boasts an impressive first-class record with over 1,000 runs in 16 matches at an average above 44, along with three centuries. For Jersey, he averages 59.25 in ODIs and has already registered multiple half-centuries across formats.
