Pietersen furious over Bell’s omission
Former England batsman Kevin Pietersen has expressed his annoyance at the fact that veteran batsman Ian Bell was dropped from the Test side, and will not be part of the upcoming tour to South Africa.
Bell has been suffering a severe loss of form in recent month, averaging less than 30 since April and having a lean Ashes series. But Pietersen feels Bell's experience against the likes of Dale Steyn would have been vital.
Instead, England have recalled opener Nick Compton and top order batsman Gary Ballance, both of whom grew up in southern Africa and will be familiar with the conditions.
Pietersen posted a video on Twitter with the title "I'm really pissed off".
He said: "How can you take somebody who’s played over 100 Test matches and you've got the biggest Test series of the year coming up against the No.1 side in the world and you can drop him, leave him out of the tour?.
"I mean, it’s absolutely ridiculous.
"I understand how people can say 'yep, he might not have scored runs for a while', but you're going to play South Africa in South Africa against one of the best bowling attacks that’s bowled over the last few years.
"You have to take him for his experience. You just have to take him. You cannot drop him before this.
"If he doesn't score runs after South Africa then maybe, I can sort of understand it. But I just do not get the thinking behind this."
Pietersen then took aim at England captain Alastair Cook, who went 19 Tests without a century himself but was never dropped, despite many calls for that to happen.
Pietersen added: "Captain Cook himself, he can go two years without a Test hundred yet he can play every single game.
"And as for Belly, Belly struggles a bit, he got a hundred what, nine or 10 Test matches ago, but he’s not good enough to get to the South African tour.
"I think it’s pathetic, and I think he’s been hard done by here and people need to start having a look at themselves."
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