After making the switch from South Africa to England in the year 2000, Kevin Pietersen spent four years playing for Nottinghamshire, after which he made his international debut for the Three Lions against Zimbabwe in 2004. He had to wait for almost an entire year before he made his Test debut, but KP’s Test debut, which came at Lord’s against the mighty Aussies in the Ashes in 2005, became one of the most important plot points in England’s cricketing history, as he went on to immortalize himself as one of the greatest to have ever set foot on to a cricket field. But what if KP, instead of moving to England, decided to stay back in South Africa and fight for his place?

KP gets off to a promising start in his international career, scoring two fifties and a 35 in the three-match series against the Kiwis, and his good run of form sees the selectors finally pick him in the Test squad for the blockbuster series against Australia during the summer, away from home. This time, however, de Villiers is safe and the flamboyant right-hander KP’s inclusion in the team comes at the expense of Boeta Dippenaar, who’d averaged just 28.16 in the 10 Tests he’d played prior to the Australia tour. 

But while the youngster was primed to get an extended run in the Test team, thanks to the pretty formidable record he had in his first 14 Tests, averaging 46.62 with three hundreds to his name, the selectors drop a bombshell ahead of the home series versus Australia in March 2006 and announce that they have omitted de Villiers from the squad to accommodate another young batsman in the form of Alviro Petersen. 

Being a supremely talented cricketer himself, mistreatment at the hands of the South African management irks de Villiers, who pulls off the ultimate betrayal and flies to England to finalize a Kolpak deal with Somerset, who are teetering in the second division of the County Championship. But while de Villiers shines on his arrival, scoring three tons in his maiden County season, his contributions, however, make little difference to Somerset, who end the 2006 County Division 2 at the bottom of the pile, with just 3 wins in 16 matches. 

But Kenya’s upset-causing streak does not end there. They down yet another major team in the Super Eights in the form of Sri Lanka, thus disrupting a mouth-watering prospect of an Australia-South Africa final. This upset sets up a South Africa-Sri Lanka clash in the semi-finals, but a sublime 149 from the bat of Herschelle Gibbs puts an end to the bid of Sri Lanka and helps the Proteas win their first-ever knockout game in World Cup history, setting up the ‘Final’ clash that was always meant and destined to be - Australia vs South Africa.

Disaster strikes for the Proteas on the eve of the final, as Kevin Pietersen ruptures his knee ligaments in the warm-up, ruling him out of the biggest game in South Africa’s history.  Right-hander Loots Bosman is drafted into the side as a last-minute replacement for KP, but that is to no avail as the night of the final ends in pain and agony for South Africa, who end up losing the game by a 53-run margin. 

But while the situation is bad for KP, it is, however, unimaginable for England, who crashed out in the group stages in front of their home fans, after falling short against both the Netherlands and Pakistan. This was, in particular, a painful pill to swallow for the Three Lions, who had high hopes heading into the tournament after pinning their faith of the likes of Jim Allenby, Graham Napier, Peter Trego, Usman Afzaal, James Kirtley and Chris Nash, all of whom had excelled in the T20 Blast. 

Pietersen finally makes his full-fledged comeback in the Test series against India in 2010, and the right-hander, now 30 years of age, doesn’t waste time to make a mark: His sublime 186 at the Eden Gardens helps the Proteas to a famous 2-0 series win over the Indians, making South Africa the first side in over six years to breach the Indian fortress. But despite KP finishing the year 2010 as the world’s number one ranked batsman and the highest run-getter, with 1324 runs and 7 tons to his name, the limelight, towards the end of the year, is hogged by another South African: AB de Villiers. 

And with their Ashes record in the 21st century reading 2 wins and 18 losses, up until that point, England have no second thoughts in welcoming AB de Villiers to the Test side, instantly, for the 2010/11 Ashes in Australia. With 14 Tests for South Africa under his belt, Abraham Benjamin de Villiers makes his England debut in the first Test of the Ashes at the Gabba in 2010 but is hit bang on his arm on his very first ball by a speeding Mitchell Johnson delivery, which forces the South African to retire hurt. De Villiers retires hurt after just one ball but comes back 52 overs later with his side reeling at 197/6, priming to face birthday-boy Peter Siddle’s hat-trick ball. 

Siddle entices de Villiers for a drive, by throwing the ball outside off-stump, in the hope of having him caught at slip, but the now-Englishman instead cracks the ball through the cover boundary, almost symbolically sending out a message that this de Villiers was no more the kid that was humiliated on Aussie soil half a decade ago. The boundary from de Villiers marks the beginning of the end of Australia’s dominance in the Ashes as England, propelled by a 785-run campaign from de Villiers and fine performances from Alastair Cook, Graeme Swann and Chris Tremlett, end up winning the series 3-1 to clinch the urn for the first time in the 21st century.