Flower backs KP for new contract

Pune: Tours of India are said to bring players closer together and one of the added benefits of England’s stunning Test series win is that it appears to have brought Kevin Pietersen back into the heart of the dressing room after a stormy summer.

It is still early and winning always puts a better complexion on such matters, but Andy Flower, England’s team director, more or less confirmed that the extension of Pietersen’s four-month contract, essentially a probation period of which he has served half, is but a formality which will be ratified when the time comes. “The contract won’t be a problem, Kevin has been excellent in every way,” Flower said in the aftermath of England’s groundbreaking series win.

“We don’t all always get on with people all of the time, in any walk of life, and everyone has made an effort to make it work. It’s been really good fun and he should be very proud of the way he’s operated out here both as an individual and as a player.”

Most head coaches tend to be pragmatists when it comes to awkward but talented players, and principled though Flower is, he knows the value of an innings such as the 186 Pietersen scored at Mumbai, which floored India with its audacity. “In that Test he showed real skill in Indian conditions on a pitch that turned on the first day,” Flower said.

“For him to score as quickly as he did there and put such pressure on the opposition bowlers really helped us turn the series around. He also scored a 73 and a 54 in the series, important innings, and he’s been excellent in the field and in the dressing room.” Pietersen’s reintegration might not have been possible had Andrew Strauss still been captain, but Alastair Cook also knows England are better off with him than without him.

Whether or not Cook lobbied, other senior players thought to have been at variance with Pietersen over his sending of provocative messages to South African players during the summer, the matter is now over, at least according to Flower. “We did move on from it as soon as we had our meetings and everyone made a commitment to do so,” he said.

“I want to continue that. We want to learn from the past but we don’t want to keep on revisiting it.” The only man who had more effect on the series with the bat than Pietersen was Cook, who made hundreds in each of the first three Tests. He had run out of runs by Nagpur, where England clinched the series 2-1 with a draw, but to bat so well in his first real stint of captaincy was one of the reasons England were able to turn the series around after being beaten so heavily in Ahmedabad.

His runs had the additional benefit of allowing him to captain more freely and he was impressive in the way that he never allowed the game to drift when England were in the field, at least not after the first Test.

“He’s been superb as a leader,” Flower said. “He’s been learning all the time. He’s been watching the opposition and the tactics they employ and I think he’s shown more nous out here than some captains who come here and don’t adapt quickly or decisively enough.