Kevin Pietersen has sparked a fresh debate about the state of modern Test cricket by suggesting that batting has become significantly easier than it was two decades ago. His comments came after Joe Root‘s remarkable feat of becoming the second-highest run-scorer in Test cricket during the ongoing match against India in Manchester.

Root surpassed cricketing greats Jacques Kallis and Ricky Ponting on the list of all-time Test run-scorers. He has now accumulated 13,409 runs from 157 Tests, with an average of 51.18. Root is now only behind Sachin Tendulkar, who holds the record with 15,921 runs from 200 Tests.

Pietersen argued that batting in modern Test cricket is “far easier” than it was 20 to 25 years ago. In a social media post, he encouraged fans not to take offence at his opinion.

“Don’t shout at me, but batting these days is way easier than 20/25 years ago! Probably twice as hard back then!” Pietersen wrote on X.

“Waqar, Shoaib, Akram, Mushtaq, Kumble, Srinath, Harbhajan, Donald, Pollock, Klusener, Gough, McGrath, Lee, Warne, Gillespie, Bond, Vettori, Cairns, Vaas, Murali, Curtley, Courtney and the list could go on and on” Pietersen added.

England were bowled out for 699, with captain Ben Stokes scoring a crucial 141 runs. India lost Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sai Sudharsan, but captain Shubman Gill and KL Rahul took the score to 174/2 in the second innings.