Pietersen rallies the troops

Kevin Pietersen believes England should share blame for Paul Collingwood's ban

Debut captain Kevin Pietersen has called upon his England colleagues to accept collective responsibility for the banning of regular leader Paul Collingwood.

Pietersen celebrated his 28th birthday as England's temporary captain at Lord's practice ahead of tomorrow's NatWest Series decider against New Zealand, which England must win to level things at 2-2.

At least one change must be made to the XI involved in the last-ball defeat by the Black Caps at the Brit Oval on Wednesday, with Collingwood beginning a four-match suspension as a result of a slow over-rate.

But Pietersen admitted team guilt for Collingwood taking the official punishment for that incident and it has been an issue that has dominated the pre-match team meetings.

"We hold ourselves responsible for sure because we should have helped the skipper," said Pietersen. "There's no way Colly should have gone down, it is all of our faults.

"We have identified where we need to improve and where we can help the skipper and if tomorrow everything comes off that we have talked about in our meeting, I will be smoking a cigar at mid-off.

"There are definitely a few areas in which we can improve.

"When a batter walks out to the wicket, you need to be ready, we can't afford to be standing in the middle when the batter is taking guard and still having chit-chat.

"You need to get in, congratulate, then get back to your mark and just do the basics of being ready all the time."

To extend the theme of sharing, Pietersen has also dished out instructions for his players to offer input while Collingwood, who stayed to participate in today's net session, watches from the dressing room balcony.

"Over the last couple of days I've been speaking to the players, giving certain players responsibility to do things, to make people feel important and bring the best out of themselves,” Pietersen said.

Pietersen will call upon the likes of Ian Bell for advice

"I know when you get given a little bit of a responsibility by your skipper, I for one have always thrived on it, enjoyed it and tried to help him out.

"It is important to listen to everybody, take it all in because you don't know everything.

"I realise I have got an opportunity here to help Colly out from the situation he's in at the moment.

"I am going to enjoy the opportunity, enjoy the day, it's Lord's, I have got family here from South Africa just on the off-chance.

"It is an amazing job, an amazing honour, I am thrilled to bits. It's the best birthday present ever, I guess."

Meanwhile, New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori is looking for the Kiwis to clinch the NatWest Series and take advantage of the absence of Collingwood.

Vettori is a big admirer of Kevin Pietersen, but he knows the absence of Durham all-rounder Collingwood will leave a big gap to fill in the England middle order.

Vettori said: “Kevin is a guy I’ve played with (at Nottinghamshire) and against quite a bit. It seemed like the logical choice when Paul was unable to play to make him skipper.

“But I suppose for us it is about the gaping hole that Collingwood leaves. In our dressing room we think he is the best player because of the all-round capabilities he brings to the side.

“Pietersen obviously has huge shoes to fill but he is the sort of guy who seems to demand that sort of attention.

“From knowing Kevin, and the way he plays his game, I assume he is going to be reasonably aggressive so there may be some opportunities there with the way he sets fields, whatever it is.

“We are just going to have to sit tight and wait to see how he takes it on. In terms of exploiting it, I am not sure there are too many options in a one-off game.”

Grant Elliott will have a fitness test to see if he is okay to face England after suffering a bruised thigh in the collision with Ryan Sidebottom at the Brit Oval.

Vettori said: “He hasn’t shaped up too well after and he is going to go through a pretty rigorous test but we are confident he will be all right. If he is, obviously he will be in the side.

“We want to put our full-strength side out and Grant’s performances over the last three games have been outstanding so he is definitely in the team if he is fit.”