Not considered for England captaincy, star batsman wishes the best for ODI skipper Alastair Cook and Twenty20 captain Stuart Broad
Not considered for England captaincy, star batsman wishes the best for ODI skipper Alastair Cook and Twenty20 captain Stuart Broad
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Kevin Pietersen
Test skipper Andrew Strauss' decision to quit one-day internationals created a vacancy but England gave the 50-over leadership to Alastair Cook, his opening partner in the five-day game and long identified as a future England captain, rather than revert to Pietersen. Ashes star Cook's elevation had been widely trailed, despite his not considered being a good enough one-day batsman to be selected for the recent World Cup where a stuttering England suffered a 10-wicket quarter-final thrashing by eventual runners-up Sri Lanka. But England sprung a surprise by announcing fast bowler Stuart Broad would succeed Paul Collingwood as captain of their world champion Twenty20 side.
Pietersen, briefly England captain across the board in succession to Michael Vaughan in 2008-09, told the Daily Mirror last month: "If the one-day job becomes available, I would definitely be up for it." South Africa born Pietersen was stripped of the England captaincy after a deterioration in his relationship with Peter Moores, now at Lancashire, saw the then coach sacked.
Pietersen, who has not played since returning home early from the World Cup with a hernia injury in March, hopes to return next week for Surrey in a three-day game against a Cambridge student side. The 30-year-old put a brave face on being overlooked for a new leadership role with England by telling his Twitter followers on Thursday: "Congrats to Cookie & Broady on the captaincies.. New era for ENG. Young captains for the future.. Exciting times ahead!!"
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