What impact will Pietersen make?

England's selectors made an unusually brave choice in picking Kevin Pietersen instead of the vastly experienced Graham Thorpe for the first Ashes Test.

In the past they may have been tempted to stick with the tried and trusted alternative, but in almost Australia-like style, they picked the man in form and the man who they hope will be able to turn a match and help England to win the Ashes for the first time since 1986-7.

It's asking an awful lot for a man who has yet to make his Test debut to bring back the Ashes, but the manner of Pietersen's one-day performances certainly suggest that he can have an influence on his team-mates. In 21 one-day internationals, he's smashed 786 runs at a brilliant average of 87. Three hundreds and four 50s in that time was a good effort, while his efforts against Australia in recent weeks pushed his Hampshire team-mate Shane Warne to call for him to be in the England team. That may or may not be a typical example of mind games from Warne, but there's no question that he's a matchwinner.

Amazingly, given his lack of experience at the very top level, Pietersen is fourth favourite to be the top England runscorer in the series. The clean striking middle order batsman is just 5/1 (6.00), and rated more likely to top score than Andrew Flintoff and Ian Bell.

bet365 have already come up with one interesting market on Pietersen, surrounding what could be an intriguing battle with a rejuvenated Brett Lee. The Aussies seem to think that Lee has Pietersen's number, and bet365 go 5/6 (1.83) that Lee dismisses Pietersen three times or more, while it's the same price to be twice or fewer.