Pietersen issue could have been handled differently: Broad

‘It just seemed a bit unnecessary when every other player gets dropped for poor form’

‘All the players didn't perform to an international standard during the Australian tour’

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

Describing Kevin Pietersen's sacking by England and Wales Cricket Board as "unnecessary", paceman Stuart Broad has said that the issue could have been handled differently.

Pietersen, 34, was discarded by England in February last year after their 0-5 Ashes defeat last winter. Pietersen later went on to release a book in which he said there was "bullying culture" in the England dressing room.

"I just think the sacking became a media uproar. It just seemed a bit unnecessary when every other player gets dropped for poor form, don't they?" Broad told BBC Radio 5 Live's Sportsweek programme.

"It could have been handled very differently by everyone," Broad, 28, added.

Broad said it might have been better to drop Pietersen from the team rather than end the batsman's international career.

"If I'd have been there I might have said: 'Look that was such a disastrous Australia tour - all the players didn't perform to an international standard. You have to go and perform in county cricket at the start of the year to get back in the England team in May'.

"Then pick the team on players who went and performed and did their duties for their counties," said Broad of his former team-mate and captain.

However, Broad could not see a way back for Pietersen, due to the emergence of several talented young batsmen over the last 12 months.

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

"When you lose a great player, younger guys come in and perform, 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."