Tuesday 5 May 2015 23:59, UK
Kevin Pietersen says Jonathan Trott’s struggles in the West Indies should take nothing away from his "brilliant career".
Three-times Ashes winner Trott retired from international cricket on Monday after scoring one fifty in six innings in the Caribbean on his return to the side for the first time since he left the 2013-14 Ashes tour with a situational anxiety condition.
Former England team-mate Pietersen praised Trott for giving Test cricket another go and told Sky Sports that the 34-year-old should be proud of his achievements.
“I saw in the dressing room how upset he was [in Australia] – I saw in the couple of months leading up to that how upset he was about different things that were going on - so for him to fight back and get back into the cauldron of Test cricket again is brilliant," said Pietersen of Trott, who scored nine Test centuries and averaged 44 in his 52 Test appearances.
“It’s testament to his character that he went back there and tried.
“It was brilliant batting behind him – you just knew that he was going to see that shine off the ball; for us hackers that bat down the order it was really good for us to stand there and execute our plans after he’d taken the shine off.
“He’s had a brilliant career and can be really, really proud of it.”
Trott’s retirement re-opens the debate about who should partner skipper Alastair Cook at the top of the order ahead of this summer’s two-Test series against New Zealand, which is followed by the Ashes.
Middlesex’s Sam Robson, who averages 30 in 11 Test innings, and uncapped Adam Lyth, who was included on the West Indies tour but failed to win his debut, lead the way.
But Pietersen, who has re-joined Surrey for the 2015 season, admits he is not sure who is the natural successor to Trott.
“I don’t know – I really don’t know,” he said.
“I’ve played county cricket for a couple of weeks – there is a huge difference between county cricket and Test match cricket.
“There are guys that bowl 60-70mph on wickets that nibble.
“Then you’ve got guys like Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc, Tim Southee, Ryan Harris, Trent Boult – guys who bowl 90-95mph (in Test cricket).
“England may have missed a trick by not playing somebody in the last Test against the West Indies.”
Watch England’s two-Test series against the West Indies live on Sky Sports from Thursday 21st April.
