Pietersen not a team man, says Buchanan

Australian coach hits out at England’s batting lynchpin

Australia coach John Buchanan has launched a stinging attack on England’s Kevin Pietersen, claiming the South African-born batsman is not a team player.

Pietersen has been England’s most consistent batsman during the disastrous Ashes defence but has been called aloof and criticised for exposing tail enders to the strike at the end of innings.

“He certainly talks about himself as a team player - I don’t personally see any evidence of that,” Buchanan told a news conference on Friday. The Australian coach said he noticed Pietersen always fielded in the outfield away from his team mates and that he was one of five players who did not attend the squad’s Christmas Day lunch.

“It surprises me that he  seems to be distanced from the rest of the group. I wonder whether the criticism of him is because he’s different from the group. Difference is important in a team dynamic, we have some different players in our team, but it’s how the difference is managed.”

Buchanan’s comments came after England lost the fourth Test in Melbourne inside three days to trail 4-0 in the series. Pietersen asked to be promoted up the order to bat at No.4 after complaining that he was sick of batting with tail enders after coming in at five in each of his previous innings in the series.

Clark for one and England coach Duncan Fletcher later revealed Pietersen had been offered the chance to bat higher up but turned it down. Buchanan also took aim at England captain Andrew Flintoff, saying he had not imposed himself on the series in the same manner as Australian skipper Ricky Ponting.

“That’s important when you set yourself up to be the leader, the go-to man, when anything is required with good decisions, a good innings, a good spell, whatever. You need to deliver,” Buchanan said.

“You see that from Ricky Ponting, generally he’ll lead from the front and he’ll lead by example. You’ve just got to walk the walk and I know Flintoff’s tried, but it hasn’t worked.”

Buchanan said he was expecting a better performance from England in next week’s final Test in Sydney but warned the Australians were in no mood for charity and were determined to complete a series clean sweep.

“One of the missions of the five-match Test series was to re-establish a gap between us and what is supposedly the second-best team in the world,” he said.

“Right at this moment we’re a little bit devoid of emotion towards the opposition. We’ve been tested at certain times (this series), but England haven’t been able to sustain their skills through the course of the Test matches, so we’re quite looking forward to that in Sydney.”