The K factor

He loves challenges. Greater the difficulty, the bigger are his deeds. And he parades it all with an air of arrogance. Such has been the regularity of his daring feats that this South African in English clothing is being branded as the next superstar of cricket.
At 27, Kevin Pietersen, a charismatic six-footer, justifies the billing having stunned the best in the business with his attacking strokeplay.He has spiced it up with some shocking hairstyles, a tattooed arm, a pop singer girlfriend in Jessica Taylor, a controversial autobiography — Crossing the Boundaries — and he is being bandied about as the cricketing equivalent of David Beckham.
Later this week, KP will be warming up to another test against an opposition which has managed to keep him relatively quiet. His average against Dravid & Co is pegged at 36, which is his lowest against the top Test teams.
He has scored the maximum runs against the hard-nosed Aussies (963 runs from 10 Tests, average 53.50) and was the fulcrum of England's Ashes success in 2005. Later, when the Aussies exacted revenge with a 5-0 mauling last year, Pietersen was among the few Englishmen who emerged unscathed.
Having taken the fight to the elite members of the spin wizards' club, Muralitharan and Warne, his duel with Anil Kumble, the third in the hierarchy, could form the cornerstone of the forthcoming Test series.
At the moment, all is not well. He is coming off a lacklustre ODI series against West Indies (42 runs from three innings) and has been under the wringer for citing fatigue as the reason for his poor scores. But it is a situation tailor-made for him to make another bold statement.
Since making his first-class debut as an off-spinner and lower-order batsman, he has broken a few barriers and crossed boundaries in his quest for excellence. The foundation for his fighting abilities was laid in Pietermaritzburg, a place infamous for the racial abuse suffered by Mahatma Gandhi.
Born of an English mother and Afrikaner father, he grabbed international attention while turning out for Natal against the touring Englishmen in December 1999. Drafted in as an off-spinner, he cracked 61 off 57 balls, including four fours and as many sixes coming at No 9. He then rolled his arm over for 55.5 overs and picked up four wickets for 141.
His scalps included England captain Nasser Hussain, Michael Atherton and Michael Vaughan. A highly impressed Hussain took him aside and advised him to play county cricket. Despite the lavish praise, he failed to find a regular spot in the Natal team. A disillusioned Pietersen blamed the quota system and decided to set sail for England to play club cricket.
Eventually, in 2000, former South African captain and Nottinghamshire coach Clive Rice handed him a contract with his county. He made an immediate impact cracking his maiden first class hundred on county debut. Thereon, Pietersen simply bulldozed his way into the England side with his stirring displays.
An English passport due to his parentage and four years in county cricket meant he had passed the eligibility test to represent England. Handed an ODI cap in 2004, the Test berth was just round the corner. It came during the high-profile Ashes series in 2005. But it was the South African ODI tour in early 2005 that tested him the most.
Despite a hostile reception, he blasted 338 runs including two centuries and a fifty. He also logged the fastest ODI hundred (69 balls) by an English batsman. "I don't have any regrets at all, I'm fulfilling a dream to play cricket for England. I like a challenge and when people are booing me and going ballistic I just take it on the chin," he said of his exploits.
During that series, he also promised to sport a tattoo of the English lions on his arm. Reminiscing later, he was to say, "It was cut-throat stuff. My parents were in shock, my mother was crying when the spectators were swearing and shouting 'traitor'. People were hysterical."
Pietersen's fighting traits were imbibed at an early age, if his college coach Mike Bechet is to be believed. "Kevin's a hell of an aggressive guy. People call it arrogance. But I call it dog-fight. He stands his ground and says 'get in my way and I'll knock you over' or 'give me a chance and I'll blow you away'.
He's got those same little mannerisms now that he had then," the Maritzburg College coach said in an interview to The Guardian.
Will the Indians get knocked over or knock him down?