Only three innings into his dramatic return to county cricket, Kevin Pietersen’s hopes of an England Test recall appear to be receding into the distance. Scores of 19, 53* and 32 in the second division of the LV= County Championship are far from ideal. The current England set-up includes teammates and a head coach he has criticised publicly in his autobiography, and many of the accusations he levelled at the ECB hierarchy have remained unaddressed on any serious level. He would have needed to perform extraordinary feats of batsmanship to prove not only that he was still capable of playing multi-day cricket at the highest level, but that he was good enough to dislodge a member of England’s currently settled middle order.
When Colin Graves responded to an interview question that Pietersen could be considered for selection if he played county cricket, the hydra of hype grew two new ravenous heads. On the one hand, Pietersen’s critics called the remarks irresponsible, and warned of the dangers of welcoming the controversial batsman back with open arms, when Graves had done nothing of the kind. On the other, Pietersen’s fans began to dream of an ECB u-turn that would see KP pull on the England shirt once more as long as he could indicate he still had the appetite and could prove his fitness. Graves gave them no such assurances.
Graves’ comments may well have been an attempt to detoxify the ECB brand. Under the chairmanship of Giles Clarke, a situation was allowed to develop in which the make-up of the national team was being decided based on factors other than cricketing talent and form. This was unfair, unsustainable and reprehensible, and Graves rightly rectified the issue. If (and the size of that “if” is impossible to overstate), Pietersen could prove in county cricket that he is worth a place in the England side whose middle order has achieved stability with Ballance, Bell and Root, then maybe a return was possible.
Gary Ballance now averages 68 in Test cricket, and became the third-fastest English batsman to 1,000 Test runs in Grenada. Joe Root became the second-youngest England batsman (after Alastair Cook) to reach 2,000 Test runs. Ian Bell is one of England’s finest cricketers, and has scored two centuries in his last four Tests. Pietersen isn’t going to usurp any of them. In case of injury as well, young middle-order batsmen in county cricket such as James Vince and James Taylor may legitimately be considered as better long-term investments for England.
Lower down the order, the value added by Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali and Jos Buttler makes it very difficult to see how Pietersen might be accommodated. It has been suggested that the opener’s berth might be more accessible given the struggles of Jonathan Trott in the West Indies. Pietersen is not opening for Surrey, he is not a proven opener (admittedly, neither is Trott), and the likes of Adam Lyth, Alex Lees and Alex Hales would feel very hard done by if their exceptional efforts to force their way into the national side were overlooked to give Pietersen another chance at Test cricket.
Adam Lyth is currently carrying drinks in the West Indies as the reserve opener, and his stunning performances in the 2014 County Championship (and his century in the Champion County fixture in Abu Dhabi) make him a natural choice if England decide to dump Jonathan Trott. Alex Hales began the 2014 season with a double-century against Yorkshire and a 141 against Hampshire. The chance of Alastair Cook being happy to open with Pietersen is also slim.
Given the performances of England’s current team, the strength of the reserves available to the selectors, and the bad blood that undoubtedly exists between Pietersen and senior members of the England team, he would have needed an imperious start to his season with Surrey to force his way into the side. Unfortunately for him, that has not been forthcoming: he currently lies fifth on the list of Surrey run-scorers for the season.
There have also been bad-tempered moanings about the quality of the bowling in the second division of the County Championship, and while many of these claims have been made by people who don’t watch a lot of county cricket, there is nevertheless a grain of truth in them and Pietersen would have needed to have done better than he has to come into serious contention.
Perhaps, after all, whether Pietersen plays for England again is beside the point. His last match on English soil was at T20 Blast finals day, when he was booed by the Edgbaston crowd. Whatever people think about Pietersen as a person, he deserves to be honoured for his exceptional achievements in an England shirt. Things shouldn’t end that way. And while Graves’ comments were not an open invitation back into to the international fold, they have perhaps enabled Pietersen to end his relationship with England on his own terms – he may well leave England for the Caribbean Premier League later in the summer. And if the Pietersen saga can end with at least a less hostile atmosphere between the two parties, then they might well have been worthwhile.
