Speculation on Pietersen of no appeal as Broad eyes upturn

As England face two must-win matches to avoid an early exit Down Under after three defeats from four, Broad found himself having to answer questions about his former team-mate.

Pietersen was sacked more than a year ago after England’s 2013-14 Ashes whitewash, at the end of which England and Wales Cricket Board managing director Paul Downton saw evidence in the final Test in Sydney that the South Africa-born batsman was “disengaged” from his colleagues.

New ECB chairman Colin Graves revived hope of an unlikely reconciliation, however, when he spoke on Sunday of a return to county cricket as a pre-requisite for Pietersen to be considered for selection again.

Broad, who did not always appear to enjoy the easiest working relationship with Pietersen, sidestepped the question of whether he would be happy to play alongside him again. But in the same interview in a BBC Test Match Special podcast, he was at pains to make clear Eoin Morgan’s World Cup squad cannot afford to spend time thinking about anything other than the task ahead.

“I must admit the timing of this press coming out is not ideal for us as a team,” said Broad.

“We’ve got the 15 of us here who, at the minute, are the only people who can make a difference. I couldn’t really care less at this moment what happens in June or July. We don’t need guys focusing on other things when we need to get our individual performances right.”

Hashim Amla struck a career-best 159 as South Africa crushed Ireland by 201 runs in their World Cup Pool B match in Canberra.

The Proteas amassed 411-4 wickets from their 50 overs thanks to the free-flowing runscoring of opening batsman Amla and Faf du Plessis, who scored 109, with David Miller and Rilee Rossouw adding 110 quickfire runs at the end.

In reply, Ireland were all out for 210, but did put up some resistance after being reduced to 48-5 in the 11th over.

The win consolidated South Africa’s position in second place in Pool B behind leaders India.