Anderson concentrating on first Test as Pietersen returns – Cricket News Update
As the English side, feature http://www.senore.com/Cricket/JM-Anderson-c1705 has insisted that the talk regarding KP’s limited-over future has not distracted the team from concentrating on the first Test, which begins tomorrow at the Oval.
"Now we've met up as a Test side, we're going to concentrate completely on it and get ready for first thing on Thursday," Anderson said. "Like I said, that's left outside our little bubble in the dressing room. We just talk about what we're going to do on Thursday."
The speculation has grown following Pietersen’s remarks earlier in the week, revealing his desire to feature in the limited-overs side, prominently theWorld T20 Cup, despite bidding farewell last month. The cricket fraternity has had their say with many criticizing his approach of wanting to play just the T20 format, while others backing his stance considering that it will help him concentrate more on Test cricket.
However, events unfolding in recent days have clearly depicted a negative image of the player after he openly talked about his intentions to play a full IPL season, foregoing any international commitments during that time period.
Such conditional return is highly unlikely given the firmness shown by the English Cricket Board in handling the situation. The ECB remain adamant that players must fully commit to all forms of the game or risk their futures. With the upcoming World Cup T20 preliminary squad to be announced today, it remains to be seen if both parties can reach an agreement, with the ball clearly in ECB’s court.
Anderson also made light work of the issue, backing his bosses to sort out the situation, while further hoping to see some KP magic in the upcoming series.
“The ECB have been very good at handling a lot of situations," Anderson said. “They've handled it brilliantly at the minute and I'm sure they'll continue to do that and I'll leave them to do that."Generally when Kevin is making the headlines he tends to play very well. So hopefully he'll continue the form he's shown this summer and get us some big runs we'll need in the middle order."
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