Kevin Pietersen is on a serious mission after making his most shocking admission to date: "I'm not very good at Twenty20 cricket, am I?"
On the eve of the World Twenty20 in England, Pietersen made the searingly honest appraisal of his short form career so far, but has vowed to make amends next month.
Despite being one of the world's finest batsmen in Test and one-day cricket, Pietersen's Twenty20 career lags too far behind for his liking and he is determined to do something about it.
In fact, Twenty20 cricket hasn't been particularly kind to him at all on the field and for a player of Pietersen's talents and mindset, serial failure simply won't do.
He has made just one Twenty20 50 for England, averaging just 26, and even though he became the most expensive player in the Indian Premier League his record there wasn't much better.
Bangalore Royal Challengers paid $1.55million for him to be their inspirational batsman and captain, but he could only muster two wins from the six games he played, and when he returned home to resume England duties the team reached the final without him.
"I made a great captain didn't I" chuckled Pietersen. "We won two out of six when I was there and then Anil Kumble took over and they got to the final.
"People are going to take pot shots at me over the IPL and the money I earned in two weeks, but it was such a great experience. I loved it.
"To captain the side four days after arriving and not knowing what some of the guys did and not knowing most of their names made it a huge task for me. I wasn't as focused on my batting as I was on trying to learn guys names and what they did.
"The more you play T20 cricket the better you become and I haven't played a lot of it, and I'm not very good at it.
"The more I play it though the more I'll catch up with my records in Test and one-day cricket definitely. I just know that I will get much better at it. I've worked out some new theories about how to go about my batting in T20 and that will make a difference, hopefully starting next week!"
Thankfully for England fans it is rare for Pietersen to consistently fail and the World Twenty20 that begins a week today against Holland is the perfect time to put things right.
Usually when Pietersen puts his mind to something he succeeds, in fact he is probably guilty of switching off when the pressure and intensity is not great enough. He is a big match player and he knows this World Twenty20 will be as big as it gets.
It was less than two years ago that Pietersen called Twenty20 a 'silly game with silly shots' but he admits his attitude to the game has since changed.
If he can start firing and the rest of the side can make their home advantage count, not even the missing Andrew Flintoff should dampen England's chances of glory.
He added: "The way T20 has now turned into a huge, huge business and the way that it has grown into having World Cup T20 tournaments, playing for your country means that my opinion of it has changed hugely.
"You have to be serious about it. You're playing for England in a World Cup at home, that is serious. It is no longer a silly game with silly shots, I want to win it full stop.
"The standard of cricket in the first tournament probably wasn't as good, whereas now the seriousness with which the guys are putting their heads to it means that the standard is going to be really high.
"I'm so excited about this tournament, it is going to be huge. It is a massive event, and since we have never won one of these global tournaments, it is about time we did and that is why it is such a big thing for me.
"It is a shame that Fred is not available, but we can definitely win the T20 World Cup if we play good positive cricket consistently."
PIETERSEN RECORD
Tests: 52 RUNS: 4494 AVE: 50.49 100s: 16 50s: 14
Odi: 92 RUNS: 3127 AVE: 46.67 100s: 7 50s: 20
T20: 15 RUNS: 379 AVE: 26.78 100s: 0 50s: 1
