Kevin Pietersen might have a successor in Adam Hose, believes ex-England spinner Ashley Giles

At the age of 37, ripe old by cricketing standards, Kevin Pietersen’s days in international cricket seem almost over. The English batting star, who has had his share of controversies, was unceremoniously booted out of the team following the Ashes debacle Down Under in the 2013-14 tour, and the door has been shut on him ever since. The mercurial batsman plies his trade as a mercenary in T20 leagues around the world, with talks of him returning to native South Africa to give his fading international career one last shot doing the rounds recently. [caption id=“attachment_4002121” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Kevin Pietersen. Reuters[/caption] However, as far as the England cricket team is concerned, they will not be missing out on a destructive batsman of Pietersen’s stature for long. That is if a certain Adam Hose, whose explosive performances in the ongoing Natwest T20 Blast have drawn comparisons with the batting legend, goes on to play for the national team. A report in The Daily Mail quoted Warwickshire sports director and former England leg-arm spinner Ashley Giles showering the youngster with praise on Friday. “It’s early days but he is a hairs up on the back of your neck sort of player. Some of the shots he hits, some of his attributes are very similar to KP’s… There’s every chance we have got a bit of a golden nugget here,” Giles, a veteran of 54 Tests and 62 ODIs, said. Hose was signed by Warwickshire midway this season from Somerset on a three-year deal, according to a BBC report. The youngster was part of the several changes that Birmingham Bears made to their line-up through the course of the tournament. He responded brilliantly to the opportunities that were handed to him, cracking a 43-ball 76 that included five sixes and seven fours that helped set up a five-wicket win. Interestingly, it was Hose’s side that defeated Pietersen’s team Surrey in the quarter-finals of the event, with the latter marking the loss as the end to his playing days in England.