“We haven’t had discussions at all about Kevin”

Image courtesy of: Zimbio

England national selector James Whitaker has made it clear that former batsman Kevin Pietersen “isn’t part of our plans”.

However, incoming England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chairman Colin Graves recently told Pietersen that he has a chance of resurrecting his international career if he excels in county cricket.

With that in mind, Pietersen is expected to opt out of his Indian Premier League (IPL) deal with the Sunrisers Hyderabad and sign with Surrey for an entire season of county cricket.

But, Whitaker reiterated that Pietersen has virtually no chance of donning the England jersey again.

“We haven’t had discussions at all about Kevin,” he told the BBC. “I know Colin very well, he is entitled to his opinion, but Kevin isn’t part of our plans. We’ve been developing our team for a year in Test match cricket. We’ve had some good conversations about what happened after the end of Australia.

“We’ve produced some good middle-order players with Gary Ballance, Joe Root and Ian Bell continuing to perform well, so we are happy with where we are in the middle order.”