Welcome back KP

We've all heard quite enough about Kevin Pietersen's fallout with the rest of the England cricket team. With an overseas tour about to begin and KP back in the squad, it's time to get on with playing the game again.

Even though I can't defend his behaviour in recent months, I for one am pleased to see Pietersen back in the England fold. This is simply because he is an exciting and high-quality cricketer, the kind the game needs and the kind that can win matches for his team.

The stats stack up favourably for Pietersen. As the chart shows, he has the best batting average (49.48) of any long-term England batsmen of the last 25 years.

If we look at strike rate, it's not hard to see why Pietersen excites the crowds and has the ability rapidly to take a game away from the opposition. Of the players in the chart, only KP and David Gower have a strike rate over 50, meaning they score at better than 3 runs an over in tests. Gower's strike rate was 50.59. KP's is 63.26, so he ticks along at almost 4 an over.

An England team that includes Pietersen scores more runs and scores them faster, and is therefore more likely to win games. Unless KP's presence in the dressing room has a seriously negative effect on the performance of other players, he should be the first name on the team sheet.