‘KP needs to prove England desire’

Former England captain Michael Vaughan has challenged Kevin Pietersen to prove he wants to play for his country again.

Pietersen, 34, was excluded from the England set-up after the 2013-14 Ashes series, which Australia won 5-0.

Incoming England and Wales Cricket Board chairman Colin Graves said Pietersen could get back in England’s side if he scored a lot of county runs.

“You say it for a while that you want to play for England — prove it,” Vaughan told BBC Radio 5 live.

“Give up your Indian Premier League deal, go and play for, say, Surrey — freezing cold away at Derby.”

Pietersen has scored 8,181 runs at an average of 47 in 104 Tests, in addition to 4,440 runs in 136 one-day internationals and 1,176 runs in 37 Twenty20s.

The South Africa-born batsman is scheduled to play for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL between April 8 and May 24, with the English domestic season starting on April 12.

He is without a county having left Surrey at the end of last season.

Pietersen said he was “pleasantly surprised” by Graves’s comments, adding: “I’m going to try to work this out for sure.”

Vaughan said: “The public outcry will get very loud if England are playing poorly and Kevin is scoring runs.

“I’d say a county would take him. If you’ve someone like Kevin Pietersen with a point to prove, I’d certainly have him. I think it’s a long shot.”

England have lost three of their opening four group games at the World Cup.

They play Bangladesh in a must-win game on Monday, March 9 and pace bowler Stuart Broad does not believe talk of a Pietersen comeback is helping the side.

“I must admit the timing of this coming out is not ideal for us as a team,” he said. “We’ve had one of the toughest fortnights we’ve had as a team for a long time.

“I think now as a team we all need to be focused on how we are going to win on Monday. We don’t want external influences breaking into our group.

“It would be wrong of me to comment and create any headlines because that would be dragging things away from what we are trying to do.” — BBC Sport