‘Watch and wait’ is call to Pietersen

Pietersen made only two in the first innings of the second Test against Sri Lanka at Lord’s on Friday after registering only three in the first Test at Cardiff.

That followed on from an average Ashes series in the winter apart from one double hundred – his first three-figure score for 21 months in Test cricket.

Broad, the father of England all-rounder Stuart Broad, said: “It is a very difficult thing for anyone to turn form around.

“My philosophy always was get back to basics – and the basics are, just watch the ball. Forget everything else.

“Kevin is a hugely talented individual. Sometimes you can think about feet, head and hands and various strokes and forget the one thing that is most important – the ball you’ve got to hit.

“When I was in a bad trot of form and knew I had to bat the next day, sometimes I went out and had a few beers, turned up the next morning and the only thing you had to worry about was the ball.

“It is about getting back to basics and watching the ball and only thinking about that.”

Broad senior, who is an ICC match referee, knows Pietersen will be conscious of the spotlight being on him while he struggles for runs.

He said: “You are thinking about what people might say about your form even though they say they don’t read newspapers or listen to the radio.

“Of course they do, of course it gets through to everyone.

“My advice would be to go out there and not worry about anything else, just watch the ball and wait and see.

“Take it 10 minutes at a time, half an hour at a time, an hour at a time.

“If you start looking at an innings and say ‘how am I going to get a hundred?’... a hundred for most people is about four and a half hours away.

“If you plan that out, it’s impossible. But if you take it 10 minutes at a time, or 10 runs at a time, it is an achievable goal.”

Championship: Pakistan bowler Wahab Riaz has agreed a deal to sign for Kent, subject to visa clearance.

The left-arm paceman, 25, took five wickets for 46 runs in a losing cause in his country’s World Cup semi-final against rivals India in March and has since impressed in the one-day international series against the West Indies, which Pakistan won 3-2 before drawing their two-match Test series.

A Kent statement read: “Wahab Riaz has received confirmation that the Pakistan Board will provide the necessary ‘no objection certificate’ that will allow him to play domestic cricket in England. Although his arrival is still subject to visa clearance, it is hoped this will be finalised during the coming week.”

Compatriot Shahid Afridi was prevented from joining Hampshire on schedule after the PCB withdrew his no objection certificate in response to his international retirement and criticism of the board, with the player taking legal action in a bid to resolve the dispute.

Twenty20: India recovered from a poor start to record a 16-run win over the West Indies in their tour-opening Twenty20 international at Port of Spain.

West Indies captain Darren Sammy chose to field after winning the toss and took four quick wickets to reduce India to 56-4 in the ninth over.

His medium pace removed Shikhar Dhawan (5), Virat Kohli (14), Parthiv Patel (26) and Suresh Raina (2), for figures of 4-16.

But once Sammy’s allocation of four overs was up, his team-mates were unable to match his high standards, and India’s fightback was impressive as they hit 159-6.

Subramaniam Badrinath found the boundary five times in a 37-ball innings of 43, Rohit Sharma sped to 26 from 23 balls and Yusuf Pathan and Harbhajan Singh flung the bat in the closing overs.

West Indies openers Andre Fletcher (11) and Lendl Simmons (9) fell cheaply, to Munaf Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin, respectively, but Darren Bravo (41) and Marlon Samuels (27) built a decent platform.

Their scoring rate was just not high enough, though, and when both departed to Harbhajan in the 16th over, West Indies had only 92 runs on the board.

Sammy fell for a second-ball duck, and there was too much ground to make up for Danza Hyatt and Christopher Barnwell, West Indies closing on 143-5 in this one-off encounter.