Former England superstar Kevin Pietersen has shared how the Indian Premier League (IPL) completely changed his life as a cricketer and how his friendship with Rahul Dravid became the turning point in his career ahead of the upcoming 2026 season.
Speaking on Jos Buttler’s “For the Love of Cricket” podcast, Pietersen opened up about a difficult chapter in his life and how the IPL opened a door to save his career that he never expected.
Kevin Pietersen tells how IPL changed his career
Pietersen was a part of the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) team in 2009 and 2010. During those two seasons, he became very close to Indian legend Rahul Dravid. At that time, Pietersen was struggling badly against left-arm spin, and then his front-foot style made things really difficult for him.
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And the former aggressive batsman reached out to Dravid for help and the Indian legend helped him. The Englishman credited his long career to his relationship with Dravid.
Kevin Pietersen said on the podcast, “The biggest thing that changed my career was my relationship with Rahul Dravid and getting a chance to call him when I was struggling with left-arm spin. When DRS came in, I was a front-foot player, and it created a lot of drama in my life for 9 to 12 months. And the IPL gave me a chance to call Dravid and say, ‘Man, I need help’.”
Friendship with Rahul Dravid became a turning point for Kevin Pietersen
Kevin Pietersen added, “The email he sent me – he’s a great person to do this – again I’ll always be grateful for what the IPL gave me. It gave me a lot of controversy; I made a lot of money there, but it also saved my career because I built relationships – trusting relationships – that I could call upon to give me longevity in my career.”
Kevin Pietersen said that after spending time at Royal Challengers Bangalore with legends like Dravid, Anil Kumble, Jacques Kallis, Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Ross Taylor and a young Virat Kohli, he realized that RCB is the perfect environment for him.
The former England star realized that if he wanted to progress, improve his game and become the best version of himself, he needed to be in a dressing room full of that level of talent and experience.
Kevin Pietersen remembers criticism of being called ‘Money Hungry’ for playing IPL and his differences with ECB
Meanwhile, Pietersen also recalled how people used to attack him because of his desire to play in the IPL and even many people were saying, ‘He is money hungry.’ He said that this is common for England players today and everyone believes that IPL helps them improve.
The Englishman admitted that he got paid an “extraordinary amount” in the IPL, but was never allowed to earn much money as the ECB kept pulling him back for Test cricket. This became the main reason for his differences with the board.
“He said, ‘You’re only allowed to go there for two weeks, and then you have to come back and play Test matches,'” Pietersen said.
“And that, obviously, caused the biggest rift – that was the breakdown of my relationship with the ECB. But at that time, I just wanted to spend time with Dravid, Kumble, Kallis. And I used to watch Kallis preparing and I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ Then I used to sit next to Dravid in the bus and talk to him.
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