Time for Pietersen to prove he is still among world elite

England may be playing some decent cricket, but correspondent Chris Waters ponders the reasons for Kevin Pietersen's loss of form.

PRIOR to losing the England captaincy last January, Kevin Pietersen averaged 50.48 in Test cricket.

Since then he has averaged 42.55 in 19 Test innings, a disappointing return for one so talented.

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During the current Test series in South Africa, Pietersen has managed just 158 runs at 31.60.

For a batsman of his prowess and potential to get better, those statistics are simply not good enough.

Pietersen's bust-up with former England coach Peter Moores was the catalyst for a year in which his form dipped markedly.

In the space of 12 months, Pietersen went from England captain and king of the castle to a humble foot soldier left licking his wounds.

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Rocked by that blow to his pride and an ongoing Achilles injury, he promptly endured a frustrating summer.

Pietersen missed the last three Ashes Tests to undergo an operation and played precious little part in the triumph over Australia.

Before the visit of Ricky Ponting's men, it would have been difficult, nay inconceivable, to imagine England winning the Ashes without Pietersen in tow.

He seemed their only real hope of reclaiming the urn, their best chance of avenging the whitewash Down Under.

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But what 2009 taught England – and what it showed Pietersen – was that even the greatest players are not indispensable.

A year ago he was England's head honcho and a model of consistency; now he is a humble infantryman struggling for form.

If proof were required that Pietersen is labouring, it came not so much during his two innings during last week's Cape Town Test, when he made 0 and 6, but during an incident on day three when England were fielding.

While Graeme Smith and Hashim Amla were in the throes of a record-breaking stand of 230, Amla punched a ball from James Anderson past Pietersen at point that seemed to catch the fielder completely unawares.

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Instead of making a credible attempt to stop the ball, Pietersen produced a lazy dive that was wholly out of character.

The ball flew past him in harmless fashion and the incident served to encapsulate his woes.

Pietersen, you sense, has lost some of his focus.

His mind is wandering in the manner of a day-dreamer.

When Pietersen is at his best, when he dominates bowlers in the way few batsman can, and when his fielding is razor-sharp, he is more focused than an entire team of cricketers put together.

That is not the case at present and you wonder whether he has yet to recover from the captaincy fall-out.

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This Test series seemed tailor-made for some fireworks from Pietersen.

Back on home territory, back where he burst on the international scene in 2004-05 with a flurry of one-day international hundreds, however, he has failed to do justice to his hard-earned reputation.

Instead, he has been upstaged by team-mates Ian Bell, Paul Collingwood and Alastair Cook, who have improbably been England's best batsmen on tour, and more obviously by the South Africans Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis, who have put him in the shade.

Smith's 183 at Cape Town, which added to previous Test scores against England of 277 and 259, was precisely the sort of ruthless contribution Pietersen needs to emulate.

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It was also an object lesson that the Hampshire man can ill-afford to dine on his reputation alone; as the old saying goes, you are only as good as your last innings.

It was not so long ago that England captain Andrew Strauss predicted Pietersen was on the verge of something special.

He is still waiting to be proved right.

During the first Test at Centurion, Pietersen dragged a length ball into his stumps just when you sensed he was about to blossom. In the second innings he had the bowlers at his mercy before attempting a suicidal single that Jonathan Trott rightly turned down.

In Durban, Pietersen perished lbw sweeping wildly at an innocuous ball from left-arm spinner Paul Harris, one of the poorest bowlers in the international game.

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Two soft dismissals in Cape Town continued a trend that urgently needs to be halted during the final Test in Johannesburg.

Pietersen's technical flaws are obvious at present.

He is walking at the ball and not getting far enough forward, and hitting across the ball rather than playing it straight.

Maddeningly for a player who harbours genuine hopes of becoming the world's best batsman, he still has a tendency to get himself out rather than being genuinely got-out; not often, for example, is Pietersen undone by a vicious in-swinging yorker or an unplayable away-swinger.

In mitigation, Pietersen has been given a predictably torrid time by the South African crowds, who perceive him as a traitor and are jealous of his ability.

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He was given a hostile reception during the last match in Cape Town to cap a miserable game on a personal front.

On the other side of the coin, Pietersen was no stranger to abuse during the tour of four years ago and on that occasion took it in his stride.

There is no reason to suspect he has gone soft in the interim.

Next year, Pietersen turns 30 and should be approaching something like his peak.

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He is a truly outstanding player with many good years ahead of him.

Yet for all that he helped win the 2005 Ashes with a memorable innings at The Oval, when he rode his luck to score a scintillating 158, Pietersen has not yet achieved the greatness he craves.

That can only come with the sort of consistency Ponting displays and which has so far eluded the pretender from Pietermaritzburg.

The problem with Pietersen

Kevin Pietersen's Test scores since losing the captaincy:

97 and 1 v West Indies at Kingston.

51 and 32 v West Indies at St John's.

41 and 72* v West Indies at Bridgetown.

10 and 102 v West Indies at Port-of-Spain.

0 v West Indies at Lord's.

49 v West Indies at Chester-le-Street.

69 and 8 v Australia at Cardiff.

32 and 44 v Australia at Lord's.

40 and 81 v South Africa at Centurion.

31 v South Africa at Durban.

0 and 6 v South Africa at Cape Town.

Total since losing captaincy:

Matches 11

Innings 19

Not outs 1

Runs 766

Average 42.55

100s 1

50s 5

Kevin Pietersen's overall Test record:

Matches 57

Innings 102

Not outs 4

Runs 4,805

Average 49.03

Highest score 226

100s 16

50s 16

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