Pietersen named Bangalore captain

Pietersen recently ruled himself out of captaining England's Twenty20 side

Kevin Pietersen has been named as captain of Indian Premier League side Royal Challengers Bangalore.

The former England skipper will replace Indian Rahul Dravid, who captained Bangalore in last year's tournament.

The South African resigned as England captain in January in the wake of a rift with coach Peter Moores, who also lost his job.

Pietersen recently stated that he did not wish to be considered for the captaincy of England's Twenty20 side.

The Royal Challengers set a new IPL record when they bought Pietersen for $1.55m (£1.1m) at the auction in February - a figure matched by the Chennai Super Kings in recruiting England colleague Andrew Flintoff.

The Challengers finished second bottom of last year's inaugural season under Dravid's leadership, prompting franchise owner Vijay Mallya to make the captaincy switch.

Dravid will continue as a playing member of the team.

606: DEBATE

Why haven't we seen this idea before? A player/coach, Pietersen is just the tonic, by example and result

collingwoodfan

Pietersen will only be available for the first three weeks of the IPL in line with an agreement he and other England players have with the England and Wales Cricket Board.

In his absence for the second half of the tournament, South African Jacques Kallis will take over the captaincy of the side.

Pietersen left his role as England captain due to what ECB managing director Hugh Morris described as "an impossible situation given the irretrievable breakdown of the relationship between captain and coach".

The 28-year-old insisted in the aftermath that he had done "nothing wrong" and that he had "unfinished business as captain of England".

His record stands as one win, one draw and one defeat from his three Test matches in charge, while his one-day record as captain reads as won four, lost five.