Kevin Pietersen left out of England T20 squad

Kevin Pietersen starred as England won the ICC World T20 in 2010, their first major title. However, the batsman's dream of helping England defend their World Twenty20 title appeared to have been dashed after he was left out of a provisional 30-man squad announced on Wednesday. 

Pietersen, England's man of the tournament when they won the World Twenty20 in the Caribbean two years ago -- their first major limited overs title -- recently retired from all white ball internationals. 

The South Africa-born batsman wanted to continue to play Twenty20 matches while opting out of 50 overs per side one-day international fixtures. 

But England said the terms of his central contract meant he had to be available for both of those formats and that the only alternative was to opt out of all limited overs international cricket, which he duly did.

Provisional England World Twenty20 squad: Stuart Broad, (capt), James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Gareth Batty, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Scott Borthwick, Tim Bresnan, Danny Briggs, Jos Buttler, Alastair Cook, Steven Croft, Steven Davies (wkt), Jade Dernbach, Steven Finn, Alex Hales, Craig Kieswetter (wkt), Michael Lumb, Stuart Meaker, Eoin Morgan, Graham Onions, Samit Patel, Matt Prior (wkt), Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Graeme Swann, James Taylor, James Tredwell, Chris Woakes, Luke Wright.