Kevin Pietersen will work on a rolling basis with England’s white-ball squad through to the 2027 World Cup in southern Africa. The 46-year-old former batter has already worked closely with England’s batters during their ongoing series against Sri Lanka in September 2026.
After Sri Lanka’s ODI series-levelling win at Headingley on Thursday, Pietersen confirmed that he has also spoken to Stephen Fleming, England’s new Test coach, about the prospect of working with the red-ball team. While his schedule would not allow a full-time commitment, he hopes to have some influence on December’s tour to South Africa and before the 2027 Ashes.
“Inside a tournament, I can’t do anything. There’s nothing I can do. But I’ve certainly had a conversation with Flem – who I absolutely love – about language that he would like me to use with the Test batters going into, say, South Africa, and then certainly into the summer next year. But I don’t think I can commit to a lot more time.” Pietersen said as quoted by Cricinfo.
Where can Pietersen help the Test batters?
Since retiring from playing, Pietersen has worked primarily as a broadcaster and also maintains several business interests. He launched a successful YouTube channel, The Switch, earlier this year. He acknowledged that committing significantly more time to coaching would be difficult, but he has already spoken to some players about Test batting and plans to do so around winter white-ball tours to Australia (three ODIs, five T20Is) and South Africa (three ODIs).
“There was a lot of strategy in the way that I approached batting. Yes, occasionally I got out to reckless shots and crazy shots in the 80s and 90s and stuff, but actually, there was a lot of structure to the way that I batted,” Pietersen said.
“I’m very, very happy that I did take up the role because it gives me a way, way, way happier perspective on where English cricket actually is. You’ve got a young bunch of guys here that are absolutely driven to be successful, and you’ve got Baz who is hellbent on making sure that we’re the fittest, strongest, most adaptable team, and he is on an absolute path to make sure that we are competitive next year,” he added.
Pietersen also played down expectations surrounding England’s prospects at next year’s World Cup. He is set to be involved in their campaign in South Africa and believes his local knowledge will allow him to assist in many different ways. However, he acknowledged that England still have work to do in 50-over cricket, with the team currently ranked seventh in the ICC ODI rankings.
“It would be amazing if we can achieve success, but I’m not sitting here saying, ‘We want to win the World Cup,’ We want to be competitive next year in South Africa, and I think that’s the game. We’ve got a very successful T20 team. We know we’re not as successful in the one-day format, so over the next 12 months, we have to work our absolute backsides off, day and night, in every single country that we’re in to get better every single day,” said Pietersen.
