KP takes centrestage

On the eve of his first Test as captain, Kevin Pietersen get some advice from his former coach Duncan Fletcher, who writes in the Guardian that Pietersen should "be himself" and not change his style of batting because of the added responsibility of being the team's leader.

It's the greatest challenge for any captain: how do you remain the same batsman you were before? The danger, of course, is that the responsibility of the new job will make Pietersen exaggerate whatever approach he wants to take. If he wants to be positive, that can easily spill over into excessive aggression. If he wants to bat with caution, he must not retreat too far into his shell. Captaincy plays with your mind in funny ways - you think you're not making allowances, but then you find yourself batting out of character because of the pressure.

In the same paper, Mike Selvey analyses the England team composition ahead of the final Test.

The Independent's Stephen Brenkley writes that among recent England captains, Kevin Pietersen is most likely to resemble Nasser Hussain.

Meanwhile, over in the Telegraph, Rod Gilmour uses Hawk-Eye to dissect Paul Collingwood's career-saving century in the previous Test and finds that Collingwood's cause was helped by the liberal servings of short and wide deliveries from the South African bowling.