Strauss had to be clear with Kevin

HATS off to Kevin Pietersen. Timing is everything in life and that is the perfect way to make a point. Who would have wanted to be in Andrew Strauss’s shoes last night? You’ve got to hand it to Pietersen. He was told by Colin Graves, the new ECB chairman, that he needed to go away and play some county cricket and he’s responded with the first triple-hundred of his career. I wish he’d done this last season, to be honest. But he can’t be accused of taking the easy option, because he’s sacrificed his IPL contract. If I were Strauss, I’d have been looking to give everyone a clean slate. England just aren’t good enough to ignore players of Pietersen’s class. If you’re available for selection and you’re scoring runs, you should be considered for international cricket. That doesn’t change my opinion that it was always going to be hard for Pietersen to overcome some of the vitriol that appeared in his book. Also, after the Jonathan Trott affair, the selectors may have believed they should keep looking forward rather than back. There’s another issue which may have prevented his return: who would Pietersen have replaced in England’s middle order? Gary Ballance averages 60, Joe Root’s playing like a dream and Ian Bell is still a wonderful player. It would be hard to slot anyone in. Strauss had to be very clear about where he stood. Pietersen has a career to think about and financial decisions to be made, so the ECB couldn’t keep him dangling after he’d gone back to county cricket and done what was asked of him.