Daily Cricket News

Pietersen is our biggest talent: Strauss

England captain Andrew Strauss says John Buchanan is "off the mark" to say Kevin Pietersen has the potential to be a divisive influence for the Ashes tourists.

Former Australian coach Buchanan says Pietersen, who was dropped by England during their home Test summer, "has the potential to be fragmentary and an individualist" and could be a "major problem".

But Strauss says Pietersen is England's most talented batsman.

The skipper says he's certain Pietersen will be picked for the first Test in Brisbane on November 25 and has backed the right-hander to have another big Ashes tour.

South Africa-born Pietersen averaged 54.44 in a side beaten 5-0 in Australia four years ago.

NSW quick Brett Lee has also backed Pietersen to do well, warning his former Test team-mates to avoid getting into a slanging match with the big-hitting batsman.

"Kevin Pietersen has never been a problem for the England cricket team," Strauss said on Tuesday.

"Buchanan is off the mark to say that - I'm sure Kevin will come to the party."

Pietersen, 30, has hit 16 Test hundreds but none since March 2009.

"We all know what sort of character he is, we know these sort of big Ashes series tend to bring out the best in him and to me that's very encouraging," Strauss enthused.

"He's been out of form - that happens to all of us - and anyone who's played international cricket for any length of time knows it only takes one innings to get yourself back in form.

"For Kevin it might be one of the first-class games that precede the Ashes, it may be in the first Test match, but he'll come right - he's too good a player not to.

"Pietersen is our most talented batsman, and in the past a big game player, so I'd play him down under.

"I don't have any concerns that he's going to come right. The key is that he hopefully hits that first Test feeling in great form and ready to make his mark on an Ashes series."

Lee says Pietersen relies on "controlled aggression".

"Pietersen ... likes it when someone has a chat to him," said Lee, who has retired from Tests but has ambitions to play in next year's one-day World Cup.

"He takes it personally and it fires him up and he'll want to score a big hundred," the 76-Test veteran told reporters in Sydney on Tuesday.

"He's a class act. He will do well and I hope he does put on a good show.

"He might be a slightly different character to the norm ... (but) I'd always back Kevin Pietersen to come out and do well."

Meanwhile Strauss admitted England's training-camp boxing session which reportedly led to pace bowler Jimmy Anderson's cracked rib "wasn't ideal".

"It was designed to test us, to bind us closer together, to go through shared experiences together, and that's what we went through," Strauss told the BBC website.

"Jimmy's going to be fine. Clearly no one wants to see anyone get injured during those sort of things."

Strauss said Anderson was on target to be fit for the Gabba Test.