Pietersen injured, will not return to IPL

Shunned England batsman Kevin Pietersen has a calf injury and will not fly to India to play in the IPL as he had planned, British media reported on Wednesday.

Having been told by new England cricket director Andrew Strauss on Monday that he would not be selected for this summer’s test matches, Pietersen was due to take up his contract with Sunrisers Hyderabad. But he sustained an injury playing for Surrey against Leicestershire in the county championship, a match in which he completed a career-best 355 not out on Tuesday, and will be out of action for two weeks. The IPL concludes on 24 May.

Pietersen, 34, was incensed by Strauss’s decision having been told in March by incoming England and Wales Cricket Board chairman Colin Graves that if he scored runs in county cricket he would be considered for a recall to the test team.

He was sacked in February 2014 after accusations of being disengaged from the team during the 5-0 Ashes defeat in Australia and later published a controversial autobiography which further reduced his chances of an international return.

South African-born Pietersen has scored 8,181 test runs for England, including 23 centuries, and has said he is desperate to return to the national side. England start the first test of a two-match series against New Zealand next Thursday.