Former England captain Kevin Pietersen recalled playing in the Duleep Trophy.© Instagram/@kevinpietersen
The first roud of matches in the ongoing edition of the Duleep Trophy saw India C and India B register comprehensive wins over India D and India A, respectively. Top India stars featured for their respective teams in the opening round of matches in order to get some playing time ahead of a two-match series against Bangladesh, starting later this month. Amid the ongoing tournament, former England captain Kevin Pietersen recalled playing in the Duleep Trophy in 2004. For the unversed, Pietersen played for England A, who were invited by the BCCI to take part in the tournament.
Taking to Instagram, Pietersen shared a picture of him playing in the whites for England A.
"India 2004! Playing in the Duleep Trophy. This is when I first fell in love with India or should I say, Indian bowlers," Pietersen captioned the picture.
Fans were stunned seeing the young Pietersen's picture from 2004, before he even made his England Test debut. Some even wondered how an overseas cricketer got to play in the Duleep Trophy, an Indian domestic First-Class event.
Pietersen had a fruitful time with the bat as he ended the tournament as the highest run-getter with 345 runs under his belt.
He scored a couple centuries and a half-century, but England A failed to reach the semi-finals after losing to South Zone and East Zone in their group matches.
A year later, he made his Test debut for England on July 21, 2005, during the Ashes at Lord's.
The match saw him score two 50+ knocks, but Australia beat England by 239 runs.
In his debut Test series, Pietersen emerged as the leading run-scorer, with 473 runs from five matches.
Pietersen represented England in 104 Tests, 136 ODIs, and 37 T20Is. He slammed 13,779 runs in these internationals at an average of 44.30.
Incidentally, MS Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh also played in that tournament.
Dhoni (East Zone) and Yuvraj (North Zone) met in the final, with the latter scoring a century in both the innings of the title clash.