Broad: Kevin Pietersen sacking 'unnecessary', could have been dropped

Pietersen's often dramatic international career was brought to a juddering halt by the England and Wales Cricket Board last February in the fallout of the Ashes whitewash defeat.

But Broad thinks Pietersen's form - he averaged under 35 in his final 12 Tests - meant he could have just been dropped, and that would not have led to the media frenzy that his sacking caused.

"It just became a bit of a media uproar, the whole sacking, it just seemed a bit unnecessary when every other player in the history of the game just gets dropped for poor form," Broad said in an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live's Sportsweek programme.

"His form was pretty poor over 18 months, every other player just gets dropped.

"Obviously Kevin's very disappointed with that and every player should be disappointed if you're not going to represent your country again.

"It could've been handled very differently, I think, by everyone."

Pietersen's name continues to linger around the England team - despite him criticising team-mates, including Broad, and the ECB in his controversial autobiography - and the 34-year-old himself remains determined to resume his international career.

Yet Broad thinks that is unlikely due to Pietersen focusing solely on the Twenty20 format in the last 12 months as well as the emergence of players such as Joe Root and Gary Ballance in the national team set-up.

"He's not played any red ball cricket for a year so I don't think a return in Test matches is very likely and he's not set the world alight in white-ball format either," Broad added.

"The three Test matches we won in the summer against India were probably the strongest performances I've played in in the 74 Tests I've played, and they were without Kevin Pietersen.

"The guys who have come in - Joe Root, Gary Ballance - have been the shining lights of the England team.

"When you lose a great player, younger guys come in and performan, so actually if Kevin Pietersen was still in the side would Joe Root have taken the responsibility on this summer and averaged 99? Probably not, but he became the shining light of the England batting line-up."