Kevin Pietersen, the England batsman, has booked a four-day overseas break ahead of next week’s first Test against India, in an attempt to rediscover his form.
The 27-year-old struggled with the bat during the recent one-day series with West Indies, averaging just 14, and admits to feeling jaded by the packed international calender.
“I’m mentally fatigued - really, really tired,” he said. “It was a long winter of Champions Trophy, then the Ashes, then the World Cup. I rattled into the West Indies series but got progressively worse, more and more tired.”
Pietersen, who was last week named in the provisional 30-man squad for the Twenty20 world championships in South Africa, is keen to exploit a rare window is his schedule. “I don’t need to work on anything,” he said. “Fatigue is the only reason [for his failure with the bat]. I haven’t been getting out in a similar fashion, so it’s not as if I’m out of form, being bowled every innings or nicking off every time.”
The South African-born player, usually flush with self-belief, said he needed to focus on improving his Twenty20 game before the world championships in September. To date he has played six times for England in the short form of the game, averaging just 16.6.
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“I’m rubbish at Twenty20,” he said. I haven’t taken it as seriously as I could do or should do. I just see it as a relaxing, fun game. But the World Championship will be massive, so hopefully that should make me take it seriously.”
England begin their three-Test series against India at Lord’s on July 19.
Meanwhile, Kabir Ali, the Worcestershire fast bowler, has berated England selectors for his ommision from the provisional Twenty20 squad.
“If the squad was picked on merit, I should have been in a long time ago,” he said. “I tick all the boxes, I can bowl, bat and field and I’ve shown England that. Other people had worse figures than myself but it seems I’m the guy who gets the blame when England lose.”
The 22-year-old said his consistency was deserving of a call-up, and that he simply could not understand the reasons behind the selectors decision.
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“Perhaps it is the club I play for. Or perhaps I don’t fit in for some reason. But I seem to be the one that gets kicked out when anything goes wrong, he said .”All I can do is keep performing and hope I can embarrass the selectors,” he said.