KEVIN Pietersen is the Ferrari of the England dressing room.

Flashy, with a penchant for the spectacular, he is capable of adding some real spark to the England batting line-up.

People will come from far and wide to watch him. He turns heads wherever he goes and he is as comfortable rubbing shoulders with celebrities as he is with life in the fast lane of international cricket.

The problem is, he does not fit into the current England set-up. That glistening Ferrari looks out of place in a fleet of Ford Mondeos.

The England team is full of classy and reliable players, the Fords of the cricketing world.

Andrew Strauss, Jonathan Trott and Alastair Cook have plenty of runs on their respective clocks, yet they will still be turning in the performances months and years down the line.

Pietersen, on the other hand, is less consistent with his eye-catching displays. He only gets fully revved up once or twice a series, similar to a Ferrari owner who waits for the occasional sunny day to start zooming about town.

The problem with that is England coach Andy Flower is building a talented, but workmanlike team. The no-nonsense Zimbabwean is not interested in pandering to colourful characters. He wants true grit men who take responsibility and have a strong team ethos.

Former England captain Michael Vaughan believes KP can shine this summer, against Sri Lanka and India, if he is given a regular ego boost – told how good he is and treated with kid gloves.

This goes against everything Flower stands for. This is a man who bravely stood up to Robert Mugabe’s corrupt government. He is a man of the people.

Obviously we are not privy to the confines of the dressing room, but it appears that Pietersen is becoming increasingly detached from the group, a private individual that seems scarred from his failed stint as leader almost three years ago.

Talent-wise, he is one of the best players in the world.

But something is holding Pietersen back and one senses it will not be long before the knives are sharpened for him.

Some big scores will blunt those particular threats, but, if he fails to get into top gear over the course of the summer, he could be heading for the scrap yard.