[arbondigo]

Originally Posted by Viceroy

100% agree with you that test matches are miles apart from ODI's, but i believe Pietersen's temperament is good enough for him to cope with the ashes. Most of his inning's this series he has come in with England in trouble so has been forced to chase the game, which has resulted in him getting himself out, but against australia half the match is mindgames. He has shown that he will not get overawed and I don't think the aussies know how to play him. His innings in the match at the oval yesterday showed that he can play at a slower pace, and it was only in the last 10 overs that he started slogging it. I just believe that he should be thrown in straight away, he is on top form and with thorpe retiring he will get a game eventually, so why not now??

But he has only shown his temperament in the one dayers. You only have to look at someone like Collingwood and then compare his one day and test match records to see the difference. He scored one of the best 100s you're likely to see but that doesn't necessarily make him a test match standard player. Yes Thorpe is retiring, but why would you drop someone for that reason when you'd weaken the side? It's not a series against Bangladesh or Zimbabwe. In my opinion, Thorpe will be given a couple of tests and if he hasn't produced the goods then and Pietersen is scoring heavily domestically then we will see a change. The pressure will also be on Ian Bell to a lesser extent as this is his first real test.