Alastair Cook hopes time can heal his rift with Kevin Pietersen - even though they have never spoken since the day the mercurial batsman was ditched by England four years ago.

Cook admitted the breakdown of relations between Pietersen and England went on to have a detrimental effect on his own batting. Cook was captain in 2014 when Pietersen was sacked after a miserably unsuccessful and acrimonious Ashes winter.