KEVIN PIETERSEN returns this week to the England team after the longest lay-off of his career, and will do so amid much fanfare. Without Andrew Flintoff, he is the team's star performer, the one box-office draw. His record demands attention as well as respect. Yet, after enduring a troubled six months before his four months away, what sort of Pietersen will it be who steps back into the dressing-room in Bloemfontein?
He will do well to tread cautiously, and not just until he is sure that his repaired Achilles tendon is sturdy enough to withstand everything he wants to put it through. This is a team that effectively won the Ashes without him, run by two men, Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower, determined to get more out of everyone.
While Pietersen remains a central figure, England do not depend upon him as much as they once did. Part of him might be relieved but one suspects another part of him would still relish being cast as the main man. He must also adjust to Jonathan Trott's emergence. Trott and Pietersen were not friends when they were growing up in South Africa but are going to have to rub along now.
That may not be easy for Pietersen if Trott establishes himself as a "sensible" version of Pietersen who does not throw his wicket away in moments of self-indulgent extravagance. And if Ian Bell becomes the batsman left out for Pietersen in the Tests, Pietersen might for the first time have to bat at number three in five-day cricket as well as one-dayers.
The main challenge he faces is that even before his lay-off he no longer looked the player he once was. His technique looked a mess, his footwork and decision-making were uncertain and he was not dictating terms as he once had. Opponents had wised up to him and a ploy of bowling to a fuller length on off-stump was paying dividends. The strategy was based on Pietersen's high backlift - always a potential area of weakness early in an innings - and his penchant for playing across the line.
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The effectiveness of the tactic was strikingly demonstrated by Jerome Taylor during England's rout in Jamaica when he opened up Pietersen's defence with a late outswinger. Full-length bowling from Fidel Edwards, Taylor's West Indies teammate, also accounted for Pietersen early at Lord's.
Ricky Ponting pursued the same line of thinking with success in the two Ashes Tests Pietersen played, setting his fields deep to frustrate Pietersen's hunger for boundaries and packing the covers while leaving the square-leg region open, an invitation to play across the line. Pietersen's bizarre dismissal by Nathan Hauritz in the first innings in Cardiff made the headlines but Ben Hilfenhaus' adherence to Ponting's plan would have removed him before that only for Billy Doctrove to turn down a plumb lbw appeal.
In the second innings, Pietersen was unsure what to play and what to leave from Hilfenhaus. He duly left one and lost his off stump.
Overall, in the two matches, Pietersen scored 48 from the 126 balls he faced from Hilfenhaus. Peter Siddle did not do badly against him either, dismissing him twice at Lord's. It was inevitable after such an explosive start in international cricket that Pietersen would be required to deal with counter-measures.
Prior to two years ago, in eight series Pietersen averaged more than 50 five times. In eight series since, he has managed to do so only twice. Similarly, his strike-rate has fallen from 65.5 to 58.7. In his past 41 one-day matches, he averages 35.5 and his strike-rate is down to 80.8, seven below his career figure of 87.4. This has been his toughest year, one that started with the shock of losing the captaincy. In 25 innings for England since, he has scored just one hundred.
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Some think Pietersen's problems have been compounded by his pursuit of celebrity. They suspect he had forgotten that his main business was scoring runs.
South Africa will be sure to follow the same tactics adopted by West Indies and Australia, and in Dale Steyn they may possess a bowler to execute the plan. That said, Pietersen had an excellent series against South Africa in 2008, scoring two hundreds, the second in his debut as captain.
Pietersen will be highly motivated to silence a hostile public again, but he will have to be patient. England want him to sit out the Twenty20s in Johannesburg and Centurion at the weekend before returning to action next week in the 50-over games.
Meanwhile, Stuart Broad was sent for a scan yesterday on his right shoulder which he jarred while fielding in Friday's warm-up match. Whatever the outcome, he was expected to sit out today's game against a President's XI in Kimberley.