Kevin Pietersen, mentor of the Delhi Capitals, has expressed his disappointment at being unable to work with Harry Brook during IPL 2025.
DC had acquired Brook at the 2025 IPL mega-auction. On March 9, 2025, however, he opted out of the season. In doing that, he even risked a two-year ban from the IPL as per the league’s new regulations. Nearly a month later, he was named England captain in both ODIs and T20Is.
Pietersen: Would've worked with Brook the same as Root and Bairstow
Starting this season, DC also signed up former England captain Pietersen as team mentor. In an interview with ESPNcricinfo, Pietersen admitted to reaching out to Brook once the latter announced his decision. “I told him, I was like, ‘Dude, I’m gutted that I can't work with you for a few months.’
“I think that he is a star … You don’t hit one ball over extra cover and the next, same ball, over mid-wicket if you can’t play. So he can properly play, but he has technical flaws in the subcontinent – in India, in particular.
“I really wanted to work with him, but people make their own choices in life and you've got to respect them. He has a flaw playing spin in India – a real big flaw. Two months here, imagine what might have happened if he had fixed that?
“I would’ve worked the same with him as I did with [Joe] Root and [Jonny] Bairstow at the start of their careers. Root turned out to be the greatest player of spin England’s ever had. I’m not saying it’s because of what we did when he was a youngster, but we spent hours together batting in the nets, going through drills and practising.”
'Brook is such a good player, but there are technical flaws in his playing of spin'
This is not the first time Pietersen expressed his disappointment over the same topic. “We were disappointed that he didn’t turn up. But those are his decisions. He’s got a big, big job now [as England white-ball captain],” he had told The Telegraph in April.
“I watched him when he played for the Northern Superchargers. I saw a couple of his shots, and I immediately saw superstardom. I love watching him bat. And there is a part of me that’s gutted that he isn’t with us at Delhi Capitals.”
However, he also spoke about the faults he had noticed in Brook’s batting against spin during England’s limited-overs tour of India earlier this year: “Watching him play spin on the last tour, he clearly has some faults which can be corrected with a few technical changes.
“He’s such a good player, but there are technical flaws in his playing of spin which need to be fixed. A lot of Western batsmen, a lot of guys from England, South Africa, Australia, have the same issues. There’s just a lot of technical things that can change – drills that you can do. I mean, look at Joe Root. He is probably one of the best players of spin in the world, because technically he is so sound. And that’s something that I would love to have worked with Harry Brook on.
“A lot of guys that plant their front foot and play with their hands feel rushed. It’s about picking length. There’s a few drills that you can do which help you pick length, which we’ve been doing over the last couple of weeks with a couple of our batters.
“There are certain techniques that you put into your practice that help you play the ball late. I’m not a believer in telling somebody ‘play the ball late’ or ‘stop planting your front foot’. I’m a firm believer in giving them the how, not the why, just this is the how, and let’s go and spend hours and hours drilling it.”
