Kevin Pietersen is the best player I have ever played with, reveals former England skipper Andrew Strauss

Kevin Pietersen is the best player I have ever played with, reveals former England skipper Andrew Strauss: Former England captain Andrew Strauss, while speaking on the latest edition of Lord’s podcast, has said that his ex-team-mate and the exiled English batsman Kevin Pietersen is the best player he ever played with.

Straus said, “In terms of being able to do things that other cricketers couldn’t, in the England side while I was involved he was the one guy that stood out for me,”

Pietersen retired from ODIs in 2012 which led to a chain of controversies and soon he was sacked from the England squad for the World T20. Later, he came in the spotlight of another controversy, as reports appeared that Pietersen had been sending text messages to certain South African cricketers that denigrated his captain and disclosed information on how to dismiss the left-hander. And this was something that forced ECB to drop KP from the final test at Lord’s.

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Strauss says the hype and publicity surrounding Kevin Pietersen has distracted the ECB, and the only way to put it behind them is to start winning games of cricket. He added that, “It’s very important for English cricket to move on from the Kevin Pietersen situation,”

“That threatens to envelop everything at the moment. The story has become more of a distraction than actually him playing or not, it’s become that big. “The ECB and England’s team efforts to move on from him haven’t worked so far, (but) by winning, that will allow them to move forward.”

At 34 and with his strained history with the English dressing room, Strauss doesn’t believe cricket fans will see Pietersen in the Ashes when Australia travel’s to the UK to fight for the Urn this winter.

“If you look at it from pure cricketing logic, after this Ashes is over, it’s quite hard to see a situation where Kevin Pietersen would come back into the side, “You’re building to the next Ashes in two and half years’time and the World Cup in 2019.” he said.

“I think if you were to bring Kevin Pietersen back it would be a short-term measure to help you win the Ashes but I can’t see that happening personally because there are too many bridges to build in too short a period of time. I think after the Ashes the story does move forward at that point.” Concluded the former opener and skipper.