Kevin Pietersen’s absence not hurting England, says Graeme Swann

England off-spinner Graeme Swann is not worried over Kevin Pietersen’s absence from the third and final Test against South Africa, saying that it would not make any impact on the team.

"We need to pull in the same direction, not 10 of us doing it and one of us not. Just because you lose one player, it doesn’t necessarily make you a weaker team. In fact, since Kevin retired from limited-overs cricket, we are unbeaten in all matches in the
shorter formats," Swann said in his column for the Sun.

Pietersen was dropped out of the team following his controversial messages about his team-mates. England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) quickly reacted to the situation and excluded the South Africa-born player despite the fact he was England’s most successful
batsman in the second Test. The 32-year-old not only played a magnificent innings of 149 runs, but also bowled well to pick up a few wickets.

"I watched a video of Kevin’s press conference last Monday at Headingley, when he spoke about supposed problems in the dressing room. I was certainly shocked by those claims. I don’t know if there were developments during the week at Headingley after I left,
but it was news to me," the off-spinner added.

"And, speaking to a couple of the other lads, it was news to them as well. I’d just say that, if there were issues, we pride ourselves on having a very open dressing room and he certainly didn’t mention any problems to anyone else."

Tim Bresnan also shared his opinion, and said that the team will be even better without Pietersen. The all-rounder explained that there is no need to miss anyone, as England have plenty of talented players to replace Pietersen.

"It’s one of those things where a talented player has been replaced by another talented player. Why should we miss certain individuals just because they’re not available for selection? We met up yesterday, the mood in the camp was exceptional. It’s just
like it always is. Always relaxed, quite focused, but we’ve always got the driving desire to get that win," he described ahead of the third encounter.

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Posted by Rana Nasir Ghafoor on Aug 15 2012. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry