KP names the best bowler he's faced

Kevin Pietersen has taken on – and prospered against – some of the best bowlers on the planet, but the former England star has a surprising pick as the best bowler he’s faced.

After naming Ricky Ponting and Jacques Kallis as the best batsmen he’s played against, Pietersen revealed the most difficult bowler he encountered was ex-Pakistan quick Mohammad Asif, who hasn’t played international cricket since being banned for spot-fixing against England in 2010.

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Speaking on the Howie Games podcast, the 104-Test veteran said Asif’s uncanny ability to find seam movement put him “a country mile” ahead of the likes of Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Muttiah Muralidaran.

"The best bowler I faced was Mohammad Asif, the bowler from Pakistan who got done for (spot)-fixing," Pietersen said. "Probably not a bad thing because he tormented a lot of batters. 

"Just his ability to make a batsman feel like the ball was accelerating off the wicket in different directions."

"If I was in good form, he made sure I wasn’t in good form a couple of weeks later after playing him. 

"If I wasn’t in good form, I knew I wasn’t in good form after playing him for a couple of weeks during a series."

In 2006, Asif removed Pietersen with his very first ball to him in international cricket, nicking him off for a golden duck at The Oval in a Test better remembered for Pakistan’s decision to forfeit the match in the face of ball-tampering accusations.

The right-armer dismissed him a further four times in international cricket but only once more in Tests, with Pietersen becoming one of his five first-innings victims during the first Test of Pakistan’s 2010 tour of England.

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But Asif’s career was plunged into scandal at Lord’s during the fourth Test of that 2010 tour after being accused of deliberately bowling no-balls in a News of the World sting that also implicated teammates Mohammad Amir and then-captain Salman Butt.

He copped a five-year ban from the International Cricket Council and one-year prison sentence in the United Kingdom, but the 34-year-old, who’s taken 106 Test wickets at 24.26, made a return to first-class cricket in Pakistan in October.

While Pietersen rates Asif as the hardest he faced, Australia fast-bowler Peter Siddle holds the honour of removing the right-hander the most times in Test cricket.

Siddle dismissed the South African-born batsman no less than 10 times in Test cricket, with Brett Lee and Muralidaran faring the next best, having gotten him out on six occasions each.