Former England star Kevin Pietersen has revealed in a conversation with Jos Buttler how playing in the Indian Premier League and the friendship he forged during the league with Indian cricket legend Rahul Dravid “saved his career”.
Pietersen and Buttler were swapping tales of playing in the IPL for the YouTube show called “For The Love Of Cricket’, with the 19th season of the cash-rich league in a few days’ time.
“The biggest thing that transformed my career was my relationship with Rahul Dravid and the opportunity to call him when I was struggling with left-arm spin. When DRS came in, I was a front-foot player and it just created a whole lot of drama in my life for 9 to 12 months. And the IPL gave me the opportunity to call Dravid and say, ‘Dude, I need help,’” Pietersen said.
He then pointed at the now-viral email that Dravid had sent him. The story goes that Pietersen and Dravid shared the Royal Challengers Bengaluru dressing room for two years — 2009 and 2010 — during which the two became great friends. In 2010, after Pietersen endured a poor Test series against Bangladesh, he reached out to Dravid, who sent an email with notes on countering spinners.
“The email that he sent me — he’s just an absolute legend for doing that — I will again always be grateful for what the IPL gave me. It gave me a lot of controversy, I earned a lot of money there, but it also saved my career because I made relationships — trusting relationships — that I was able to call upon to give me that longevity in my career,” Pietersen added.