Andrew Strauss is too weak an individual to take English cricket forward.

I don’t rate Strauss and I don’t believe he is the right guy for the job as England’s new director of cricket. He clashed with Kevin Pietersen while he was still captain of the national team and now Pietersen has been told he won’t be considered to play for England.

It’s a ludicrous situation. The fact that there is no one strong enough to control Pietersen is ridiculous. England need him to play. I find it amazing that they can’t sort it out.

England need players of Pietersen’s calibre. I think there is quite a lot of truth in the things he said in his autobiography, but they gave him some encouragement to play for England again.

Pietersen is someone who makes a huge difference to the strength of their team. There is a 50% turnaround when he plays for England compared to when he doesn’t. They need a player of his confidence because it rubs off on the other players and you need that when you face a team like Australia.

England don’t have enough world-class batsmen. There is not much to write about in the batting line-up, which is very average.

I rate Kevin Pietersen highly. He is without a doubt among the top six batsmen in England’s history. He can change a game in short time which puts pressure on the bowlers.

It’s difficult to divide the blame, but both parties are guilty for what has transpired, there is no doubt about that.

I think New Zealand will give England a good run in their upcoming Test series. England need to start winning. They have to beat New Zealand well and confidently if they are to have any chance against Australia in the Ashes.

They are lacking enough good players especially in their middle order. England are too conservative in their approach. They need to be more creative and expose their players to the IPL.

Just on a side note, I completely agree with the comments Dale Steyn made in a recent interview where he said he didn’t want to waste his time playing against teams like Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, but rather focus on the big tournaments as well as Test cricket.

It’s a good idea. He should take a rest and keep himself fresh for the big series and tournaments.