London: Kevin Pietersen's England career is safe at least for now as he has been short listed for the World Twenty20 to be held in Bangladesh in March. ECB has announced a provisional list of 30 players.
Pietersen's relationship with team director Andy Flower has broken down after Ashes debacle for which review has yet to take official shape.
The crunch will come when England whittle it down to 15 and name a squad for next month's one-day tour to West Indies. That will come at the end of this nightmare tour of Australia.
Ashley Giles, England's one-day coach, gave a qualified endorsement of Pietersen's hopes of carrying on in international cricket before admitting they want to complete this tour before making the promised ‘big decisions'.
Paul Downton, who will ultimately decide if Pietersen has an England future, does not begin as managing director until next month and captain Alastair Cook said last week that full discussions over where England go after their Ashes debacle will not begin until he returns home.
‘At no point did we discuss leaving Kevin out of the 30,' said Giles after England had arrived here in Brisbane for Friday's second one-day international.
‘The important thing is that we don't make any knee-jerk calls now. We are in a one-day series we desperately want to win.'
Giles, who had a good relationship with Pietersen when they played in the 2005 Ashes, was asked if he believed the maverick will ever play for England again.
After a pause, he said: ‘I don't know. We have to take stock. Nobody is ever guaranteed of playing.'
England have bought themselves time and Giles is unlikely to disagree publicly with Flower.
The 30-man squad is made only because of ICC administration purposes. But it always throws up an unlikely name or two and this time includes Notts' Harry Gurney and Steven Parry of Lancashire.
Neither are likely to make the cut but Notts pair James Taylor and Samit Patel will be relieved they have not been forgotten and an intriguing inclusion is Worcestershire's Moeen Ali, a top-order batsman and a spinner with a doosra.
Wold T20 squad
S Broad (capt), M Ali, J Bairstow, G Ballance, R Bopara, S Borthwick, T Bresnan, D Briggs, J Buttler (wkt), M Carberry, J Dernbach, S Finn, H Gurney, A Hales, C Jordan, C Kieswetter (wkt), M Lumb, E Morgan, G Onions, S Parry, S Patel, K Pietersen, B Rankin, J Root, B Stokes, J Taylor, J Tredwell, J Vince, C Woakes, L Wright.
