Captain Pietersen Boosts England's Resilience, But at What Cost to His Crucial Irresponsibility?

That's gratitude for you. England come all the way back to India in a show of solidarity and they get their noses ground into the pale grey dust of Mohali for their troubles.

They endured a triple-century partnership and the ridiculous thing is that they bowled quite well for much of that time. Equally ridiculous, Gautam Gambhir, in pursuit of a second double century in his Test career, did not play particularly well. There were a few wafts from him and his footwork went missing for a while after being roughed up by Andrew Flintoff. By contrast Rahul Dravid got better and better.

What does a captain say at the lunch interval with the score at 302-1? All he can hope for is the side to keep body and soul together, to ensure that his team stay together and keep trying. Kevin Pietersen managed that and more. Even before the wickets started to fall we could not be too critical of the minutiae: the field placements or the bowling changes.

Indeed when four wickets tumbled for 19 runs in the afternoon it was no more than England deserved, a true measure of their resilience. And if Alastair Cook had held the simplest of catches in the gully, well, who knows? England's resolve was magnificent. Graeme Swann bowled intelligently and in mid-afternoon Flintoff delivered a Herculean spell. This team was behind its captain.

Yet a pattern is emerging in the Pietersen regime. As befits his character there are no grey areas, no middle ground. Against South Africa at the end of last summer England were invincible; against India this winter they cannot win a game - the nearest they came was at Chennai.

Yet throughout the defeats and the traumas caused by the Mumbai atrocities Pietersen has carried out his duties as England captain excellently. Off the field his comments have been measured and constructive. On it there can be no major complaints of his decision-making or his ability to motivate his players. Yet I still harbor the same reservations about the elevation of Pietersen to the England captaincy as I did on the day he was appointed. Pietersen is England's best batsman, their most dangerous player and the one most feared by opponents. He is the match-winner in the first six.

My contention is that he is at his best when he has a bit of leeway, the freedom to bat with a hint of irresponsibility, to take the breath away with the outrageous reverse sweep and the flamingo flick. That is when opponents really fear him. The captaincy is bound to subdue those instincts. We do not want Pietersen the percentage player.

However the die has been cast by our National Selector, Geoff Miller. He will surely stick with Pietersen now. Moreover Pietersen has earned the right to take the side beyond the matches against the West Indies into next summer's Ashes series with this proviso: we have to establish that Pietersen the batsman is not neutered by all these responsibilities.