Pietersen wants to strike pre-Ashes blow
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Kevin Pietersen is hoping England can strike an early psychological blow against the Aussies. (AFP: Emmanuel Dunand)
Kevin Pietersen believes England has a golden opportunity to strike an early blow in the build-up to the Ashes by defeating Australia in the forthcoming one-day international series.
England, which regained the Ashes on home soil last year, still has plenty of cricket before the first Test in Australia on November 25, with the visit of Pakistan as well as a one-day series against Bangladesh on the horizon.
But Pietersen and his England team-mates will play Australia five times over the coming weeks and the batsman is confident they can deliver another dent to their rivals morale after beating them recently in the final of the ICC World Twenty20.
"It would have been nice only to play them again on November 25 after we beat them in Barbados but if we play the way we played in the Caribbean then we're moving in the right direction," Pietersen told Sky Sports News.
"A lot of our good players and experienced players are coming to the party and we're all dovetailing with each other. If one guy doesn't do well another guy does.
"The key to beating Australia is for all 11 to dovetail together - or all 12, 13, 14 even 15 if they get an opportunity to come in.
"Everyone talks about this word consistency but we've been doing it for a while and we have had some good results in the last 18 months so we want to continue that."
England's recent record in Australia has been poor, with its last Ashes triumph there coming in the 1986-87 tour.
With that in mind Pietersen insists it was significant that England's Twenty20 win over the old enemy came not in favourable home conditions but in the Caribbean.
"It's a huge boost to beat Australia away from England and it's something we haven't done for a long time," he said.
"They always beat us in Australia and they beat us in the the semi-final of the Champions Trophy (in South Africa) too.
"Whenever I've played Australia away from home we've never really come up trumps but to win (the World Twenty20) the way we did - I think India were only team we didn't get to beat on the big stage... that will give us a lot of confidence."
-AFP
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