Kevin Pietersen celebrated his return to English domestic cricket with a dashing 170 for Surrey on Sunday as he started his quest to regain his Test place in style.
Pietersen has not played for England since being controversially axed last year following the 5-0 Ashes series loss in Australia.
But the 34-year-old South Africa-born batsman has always insisted he wants to play for England again and gave up an Indian Premier League contract to re-sign with Surrey in a bid to prove the seriousness of his intent.
Pietersen’s critics will doubtless seize on the fact that Sunday’s century — his first in any form of cricket since the Old Trafford Ashes Test of 2013 — came in a non first-class match against an Oxford MCC Universities’ student attack.
But the South Africa-born batsman gave a good crowd at the Parks plenty to enjoy with a timely knock, his hundred coming just a day before the start of England’s three-Test series against the West Indies in Antigua.
Pietersen, who this week saw one of his chief England and Wales Cricket Board tormentors in Paul Downton sacked as England’s managing director, was in fine form on the opening day of this three-day fixture.
England’s leading run-scorer in all international cricket faced 149 balls, including 24 fours and two sixes.
He had been playing for Twenty20 teams around the world since his England demise but has decided to skip this year’s Indian Premier League to chase a national racall.
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