Alec Stewart believes 'run-hungry' KP can earn England recall with best performance in county cricket

Former England captain Alec Stewart has said that sacked batsman Kevin Pietersen is 'run-hungry' and would be asking questions off the selectors if he displays his best form in county cricket in a bid to earn a recall to the national side.

Pietersen rejoined county club Surrey for the 2015 season in a bid to earn an England recall. He was sacked by England in February 2014, while national selector James Whittaker had recently said that the batsman was not a part of their plans.

Stewart, who is county club Surrey's director of cricket, said that they have signed Pietersen because he is run-hungry, the BBC reported.

The former England wicketkeeper-batsman added that if Pietersen can come back into their side and score heavily, he would ask questions of the selectors.

Following England's 5-0 Ashes whitewash in Australia, England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) managing director Paul Downton had said that the decision to dismiss Pietersen had been taken because he was disengaged and disconnected from the team.

However, Stewart said that Pietersen was capable of performing to his best, if he was to return to the national set-up. He claimed that Pietersen has been as good as gold with them, adding that if he had been a bad character, they wouldn't have had him.

Stewart also said that they hope Pietersen would be exactly the same this time, if not even more hard-working and desperate to score runs.

Stewart insisted that clearly if England do well against West Indies as they expect, then it would take an injury or a huge loss of form for a vacancy to become available, but added that all Pietersen has said is that he's going to do is score runs, and then he would sit back and see what happens.