Kevin Pietersen is set to make his return to English cricket, having started training with County side Surrey ahead of the upcoming domestic season.
The 37-year-old hasn’t played a game on English soil for more than two years. Earlier this year he said he would make a return to the English game in favour of a stint in the Caribbean Premier League.
The Melbourne Stars marquee man last played for Surrey in June 2015, and while he won’t feature for the competition’s start, he’ll make an appearance on July 19 – Surrey’s fifth match of the season.
Pietersen’s form makes you wonder why he isn’t in contention to play at the international level. He averages 35.05 at a strike rate of 136.82 and is England’s second-highest run-scorer with 8181 from 104 matches at 47.28.
It is a real shame that the wider audience has been starved of seeing this man play at an international level.
The upside to his lack of international cricket is that fans have been able to see him in their own countries. Pietersen has been able to get his cricket fix from the T20 domestic tournaments around the world.
In 2015, his last T20 game on English soil, Pietersen hit an unbeaten 362 not out against Leicestershire. Pietersen’s brilliant knock did little or no help to see him seep back into the international Test fold. Andrew Strauss, who was director of England Cricket at the time, said the England team had moved on from Pietersen for good.
Pietersen’s international Test career came to a halt after a verbal dispute with then England coach Peter Moores. The fallout was over a dressing room incident that occurred in the 5-0 loss to Australia in the 2013-14 series.
Pietersen has not held his thoughts back in venting his frustration at then England captain Alastair Cook and the English and Wales board. He was sacked shortly after the dispute and has since had to find his way around the world playing in domestic competitions.
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