Kevin Pietersen’s absence no concern for Stuart Broad

England Twenty20 skipper Stuart Broad has made it clear that Kevin Pietersen’s absence is not going to overshadow the upcoming big competition at Sri Lanka, where his side will defend World T20 title.

Pietersen could not earn a place in the squad for the imminent World T20 championship following a text-message controversy. The South Africa-born was ‘Man of the Tournament’ in the previous T20 World Cup a couple of years ago, and England will definitely
miss him at Sri Lanka.

However, Broad has put Pietersen to one side, and hoped that the replacement player, Alex Hales, will do an equally good job for the country. The young man scored 99 runs from 68 balls during England’s previous T20 match against West Indies in June.

Broad told Sky Sports News on Friday: "The planning started, for these (Twenty20) games and the (Twenty20) World Cup, from Trent Bridge. KP had made himself unavailable for the World Cup and his replacement came in and got the highest score for an English
batsman.”

"The planning had already been set in place, Alex Hales came in and did very well and that’s what we’ve been focusing on. We’ve got a great squad here and we’re really excited about the next month. We’ve got guys who are hungry and keen to develop their skills,
and going to Sri Lanka we’re very excited to do that."

Ahead of the mega event, England will face South Africa in three-match T20 series, getting started with the opening game on Saturday. The Proteas have a slight edge, as they thrashed the home side 2-0 in the Test series.

The Englishmen responded well in the ODIs, but could not win. The series eventually finished 2-2. Broad sees T20 matches against South Africa as very crucial, saying that it is a good chance for the team to gain momentum prior to the big event.

“It’s the start to our World Cup campaign and we’re looking to gain momentum throughout this series. The Test and one-day series didn’t go exactly according to plan but we’ve got the responsibility to do that over the next week,” said Broad.

"South Africa, I think, are number one in the Twenty20 format, so we know we’re up against a tough team but we’ve played some really good Twenty20 cricket over the past year. We need to develop on that and move forward ahead of Sri Lanka."

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Posted by Rana Nasir Ghafoor on Sep 8 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