Australians are like ‘wounded animal’: Pietersen

MELBOURNE - England star batsman Kevin Pietersen feels the Australian team is like a “wounded animal” ahead of the Ashes series beginning in Brisbane Nov 25.

After a forgettable India tour took Australia to their lowest Test rankings of five, many have tipped them to lose the Ashes series at home for the first time since 1986-87.

“They are, in Australia, a very, very tough team to beat,” Pietersen was quoted as saying in The Age Tuesday.

“They’re a wounded animal at the moment, and you know what happens when animals get wounded, they turn into fearsome predators. Let’s hope that we can play well enough to conquer that.”

The 30-year-old Pietersen has averaged just 36.90 since the start of last year’s Ashes series and hasn’t made a Test hundred since March 2009. He, however, shrugged off any worries pertaining his form.

“Every single time I’ve played against Australia for the month leading into it and days leading up to the first Test, there’s a lot of things which get said which have absolutely no bearing on what happens after the first ball’s bowled,” Pietersen said.

“I’m not prepared to get involved, I’m not prepared to add any fuel to any fire which they might have started.

“I just want to go out and play some really tough, hard cricket, competitive cricket and challenge myself against the Australians in Australia.

“I know that each one of the English players is very quietly confident that we’ll do a lot better than we did last time.”