England down the betting for T20 World Cup without Pietersen

Kevin Pietersen may have been the star of the show when England won the T20 Cricket World Cup two years’ ago, but he will not be repeating his antics this year in Sri Lanka.

Petersen has been left out of England’s 15-man party and as a result the defending champions are 6/1 to be the first back-to-back winners.

There are certainly grounds to believe that the South-African born batsman has played his last international game in any form of cricket as electors continue to ignore him.

Pietersen was dropped for the final Test with South Africa after sending messages to the opposition criticising his teammates, a match England lost to lose the series 2-0 and in the process drop from number one in the Test rankings.

See which players we think make up the ultimate cricketer here

However, given his previous T20 form, there were some expectations that he would be recalled for the T20 World Cup after apologising for his actions.

Pietersen scored 248 runs at the last T20 World Cup at an average of 62 and only Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene hit more.

Alex Hales is the player who may be expected to fill Pietersen’s shoes, especially after contributing 99 in England’s last T20 encounter with the West Indies.

The England batting unit looks fairly set for the tournament, with Craig Kieswetter joining Hales in opening duty, with Ravi Bopara, Eoin Morgan, Jos Buttler and Jonny Bairstow making up the middle order.

Samit Patel will take on all-rounder duties, with captain Stuart Broad, Tim Bresnan, Steven Finn and spinner Graeme Swann liable to make up the starting 11.

This leaves batsman Michael Lumb, all-rounder Luke Wright, seamer Jade Dernbach and spinner Danny Briggs to make up the travelling party.

India are 9/2 to win the World Cup, with the hosts Sri Lanka just behind at 5/1.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.