"I'm not very good at Twenty20 cricket, am I?" Pietersen is quoted as saying by ‘The Mirror’ on the eve of the Championship. "The more you play T20 cricket the better you become and I haven't played a lot of it, and I'm not very good at it."

He was Bangalore’s most expensive player this season, and also the most unsuccessful averaging just 26. But he hasn’t lost his sense of humour: I made a great captain didn't I," he says lightheartedly. And Pietersen is no quitter. He promises to bring the necessary changes to his batting techniques to adapt to the game. "The more I play it though, the more I'll catch up with my records in Test and one-day cricket definitely. I just know that I will get much better at it. I've worked out some new theories about how to go about my batting in T20 and that will make a difference, hopefully starting next week!"

However, his Achilles’ heel still remains a concern, though he has been included in the squad. The injury kept Pietersen out of the recent home One-day series against the West Indies.

 The challenge for Pietersen this time is to ensure that England doesn’t burn from Freddie’s absence. The odds are stacked against the England team even as major contenders in the race for the trophy. In addition to a hard hitting batsman what a Twenty20 team needs is wicket taking bowler. With Andrew Flintoff, who was both a deadly seamer capable of getting reverse swing and a feisty batsman, England seem to have been deprived of a fair chance to make it anywhere in the tournament.

Flintoff is down with a tear to the meniscus in his right knee, and is being rested so that he may be fit for the upcoming Ashes.

However, speedster Stuart Broad believes that the team has grown over its dependence on Freddie: “We've certainly won well without Fred in the past, but it's important we play good cricket," Broad said. "He's obviously a very important player for us with bat and ball but players step up and take responsibility when he's not here, that's very important… We need to gain confidence of winning without Fred so when he comes back into the side there will be a lot of belief and confidence there… Fred is the sort of bowler who gets thrown the ball in an important situation but when he's not in the side someone else gets given the ball and takes responsibility."

And with players like Ravi Bopara, Dimitri Mascarenhas and Essex wicket-keeper James Foster, it does look to be a promising team this year. England coach Andy Flower believes Ravi Bopara can provide the answer to top of the order in one-day cricket which had been a cause for concern since the retirement of Somerset’s Marcus Trescothick.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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