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Cape Town - Kevin Pietersen is furious that England have left Ian Bell out of their Test squad for the end-of-year tour to South Africa.
Pietersen has been vocal on his own ambitions to get back into the Test squad - he last played in the 2013/14 Ashes series in Australia - but he has now jumped to Bell's defence.
In a video he posted to his Twitter page, Pietersen had a full go at the decision to leave out Bell, England's second highest run scorer of all time behind Pietersen, himself.
"I'm actually sitting here very, very, very annoyed," KP ranted.
"How can you take somebody who's played over 100 Test matches, and you've got the biggest Test series of the year coming up against the No 1 side in the world, and you can drop him.
"It's absolutely ridiculous. I understand how people say 'yip, he might not have scored some runs in a while' but you're going to play South Africa in South Africa against one of the best bowling attacks that's bowled after the last few years.
"You have to take him for his experience, you just have to take him. You cannot drop him before this. If he doesn't score runs in South Africa, then maybe I'd sort of understand it. But I just do not get the thinking behind this.
"Captain Cook himself, he can go two years without a Test hundred, yet he can play every single game. And as for Belly (Bell), he struggles a bit ... he got a 100 maybe nine or 10 Test matches ago, but he's not good enough to get to the South African tour.
"I think it's pathetic and I think he's been hard done by here, and people need to start having a look at themselves."
The four-match Test series gets underway on Boxing Day in Durban.
England squad:
Alastair Cook (captain), Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Gary Ballance, Stuart Broad, Jos Buttler, Nick Compton, Mark Footitt, Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, Samit Patel, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, James Taylor, Chris Woakes
I'm really pissed off - https://t.co/bIDQo3c6AP
— Kevin Pietersen (@KP24) November 19, 2015
