Pakistan Today

Pietersen rested for India T20 matches, but returns for ODIs

Kevin Pietersen has been rested for England’s two Twenty20 matches against India in December but will return to the one-day squad in January.
Batsman Pietersen, 32, has reversed his decision to retire from limited-overs cricket and is likely to make his return to the 50-over team almost 11 months after his last appearance.
Spinner Graeme Swann is rested while batsman Ravi Bopara has been dropped. Bowlers James Anderson and Stuart Broad will only play part of the ODI series.
Pietersen, who has scored 4,184 runs at an average of 41.84 in ODI cricket, scored back-to-back centuries against Pakistan in February but announced his retirement from that form of the game in May – citing the “intensity of the international schedule and the increasing demands on my body”.
However, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) insisted he also had to retire from international Twenty20 cricket, in accordance with their rules. The 32-year-old reversed his decision in August before being dropped from the Test squad during the South Africa series for sending derogatory text messages to the opposition.
He returned to the Test team for the tour of India after successfully completing a period of “reintegration” and scored a sparkling 186 in the second Test to help England level the series.
England team director Andy Flower told BBC Sport: “I believed he would come back in and we would make it work. He has been excellent so far on tour. “The way he played in the recent Test, if he takes that sort of form, control, power and innovation into the one-day series, I think he will be a huge part of any success over the next few years in all forms.” The T20 and ODI teams will be managed by Ashley Giles, who has taken over from Andy Flower as the head coach of the limited-overs squads.
The T20 team, captained by Broad, will play matches in Pune and Mumbai on 20 and 22 December respectively, with Kent off-spinner James Tredwell, 30, and Surrey fast bowler Stuart Meaker, 23, the only players included who did not travel to the T20 World Cup earlier this year.
England then return to India for five ODIs between 11 and 27 January, when Anderson, 30, will play in the first three matches before being replaced in the squad by 26-year-old Broad. Flower has backed Broad to return to form soon despite his disappointing start to the current Test series with India. “We are only halfway through the Test. I don’t think we should judge too quickly. He has played in first the two, but we don’t know what will happen in the third or fourth.
“He has an excellent record and has been integral to our success over the last few years so I can’t see any reason why that won’t continue.”
Essex batsman Bopara, 27, loses his place in the squad after a run of poor scores against South Africa in the summer, when he scored just 22 runs in four innings but Flower insists it is not the end of his England career. “This is not the end for Ravi and I said exactly that to him,” added Flower. “His performances have lacked the consistency we require from an experienced batsman [but] I would love to see Ravi fight his way back in to the team in any form of the game.”
England T20 squad: Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire), Tim Bresnan (Yorkshire), Danny Briggs (Hampshire), Jos Buttler (Somerset), Jade Dernbach (Surrey), Alex Hales (Nottinghamshire), Michael Lumb (Nottinghamshire), Stuart Meaker (Surrey), Eoin Morgan (Middlesex), Samit Patel (Nottinghamshire), James Tredwell (Kent), Luke Wright (Sussex).
England ODI squad: Alastair Cook (Essex), Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire), Ian Bell (Warwickshire), Tim Bresnan (Yorkshire), Danny Briggs (Hampshire), Jade Dernbach (Surrey), Steven Finn (Middlesex), Craig Kieswetter (Somerset), Stuart Meaker (Surrey), Eoin Morgan (Middlesex), Samit Patel (Nottinghamshire), Kevin Pietersen (Surrey), James Tredwell (Kent), Jonathan Trott (Warwickshire), James Anderson (Lancashire), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire).

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