THERE was so much laying on of hands on the first day of this Test that Kevin Pietersen was as much faith healer as captain. Happily, it worked nicely for him in both roles. A team that has already lost a series needs a dose of tender loving care, and that is what Pietersen delivered by the bucket, along with plenty of positive energy. He was in touch in a tactile fashion and mentally with every one of his players, and their response was excellent.

His senior men backed him up admirably. Andrew Flintoff was in there at every opportunity with advice for his captain and his fellow bowlers; Steve Harmison was as proactive as I have seen him in terms of dictating his own field placings, and there was the feeling that everybody on the field was fully involved.

That might sound like a subtle criticism of Michael Vaughan’s captaincy. It is not meant to be. It is a natural reflection of what happens when one long reign finishes and the new man takes over. Over Vaughan’s five years in charge, he got to the stage where his players trusted him to make the right moves all by himself, so they would support him wholeheartedly, but not in the same demonstrative way that we saw in this match. Pietersen knows there will be days when he will have to work a lot harder to cajole that same level of commitment from his team.

Vaughan’s resignation forced a relatively hurried discussion about his successor, even if one gives credit enough to the selectors, who would no doubt have already considered what might happen in the future should change be needed. To go for KP was the option that ticked most of the boxes, especially the one that national selector Geoff Miller has always been keen to move towards – that the captain be a certain pick in all three forms of the international game.

For many people it was a popular decision. From the detractors came the question: how can you ask a maverick to captain the England cricket team?

Maverick can be defined in various ways, including “a person who shows independence of thought or action, a nonconformist” or “an independent individual who does not go along with a group or party”. Pietersen would no doubt rail at the second definition, as he has always been at pains to emphasise his commitment to this England team, but the first sums him up rather well and in a positive sense. It is what has made him the very special player that he is.

One is entitled to ponder how a man who has been able to focus so single-mindedly on his own performance will adapt to a role that requires the same attention to be given to those around him. The answer is that it all depends on the inner character of the man, particularly his ability to switch his mind to empathise with, sympathise with and understand the men in his charge.

It has often been said that it is harder for the supremely gifted player to empathise with those of lesser talent or those whose approach to the game is basically different. My good friend and colleague Sir Ian Botham, for all his talents and his instinctive understanding of the game, found it hard to identify with the more retiring members of his team who did not live their lives as fully off the field as he did. In the end it suited everyone better that he return to being the inspirational allrounder and major influence without having to be captain as well.

By way of contrast, when the powers that be were considering Nasser Hussain for the captaincy, the concern was that as a player he had up to that point been notoriously self-absorbed. He convinced the chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, Lord MacLaurin, that he had the capacity to change, and so it proved. Hussain was able, as he puts it, to hit a switch that turned on his ability to focus on his team’s needs and he became an effective if still feisty captain.

One difference in Pietersen’s case is that he has so little captaincy experience. It is not necessarily a problem (Vaughan was not long on captaincy experience when he took over). All it means is that inevitably at some stage there will be situations where KP might find his instincts lead him in the wrong direction, but neither he nor we should be put off by that. This has applied, I am sure, to all of us who have done the job.

For now I am sure he will get all the support he needs from a team that seems very much with him. There will be new things to learn with the one-day matches that finish off the home season, then it will be on to India and the West Indies and the challenges peculiar to those parts. It is not meant to be an easy journey, but for this popular maverick it should be an interesting one that we should have a lot of fun following.