Kevin Pietersen named in Shane Warne's English Test team

Johannesburg: Australian spin legend Shane Warne has picked sacked batsman Kevin Pietersen in his fictitious list of England Test team.

Pietersen hopes of earning an England recall suffered a heavy blow on Tuesday when his country's new cricket chief Andrew Strauss told the maverick batsman that he would never play for his adopted country again, Sport24 reported.

However, Pietersen smacked an unbeaten 355 for Surrey on Day 3 of their County Championship Division Two match against Leicestershire at The Oval.

Warne revealed his ideal England Test team on Twitter, which is captained by Alastair Cook and has players like Alex Hales, Ian Bell, Joe Root, Kevin Pietersen, Jos Buttter, Ben Stokes, Adil Rashid, James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Steven Finn/ Chris Woakes / Chris Jordan.

Pietersen, a veteran of 104 Test and 136 one-day caps for England, has been out of the national squad since his central contract was cancelled by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) following the team's Ashes washout by Australia in 2014.

The maverick batsman turned down a lucrative Indian Premier League contract with the Sunrisers Hyderabad team to concentrate on his county campaign with Surrey, in a bid to earn an England comeback.

Earlier, incoming ECB chairman Colin Graves had stated that Pietersen could earn a recall to the national side again if he made enough runs in county cricket.