England new coach Trevor Bayliss played a straight bat to the controversy surrounding Kevin Pietersen's Ashes selection omission on Thursday.
Bayliss was inevitably asked about the position of batsman Kevin Pietersen, who has been ruled out of participating in the series by England's director of cricket Andrew Strauss because of "trust issues".
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The Australian did his best not to wade too deeply into the issue when asked about the maverick batsman's selection for the upcoming series beginning on July 8 at Cardiff.
Describing Pietersen as a 'good batter', Bayliss said that the exiled batsman is currently unavailable for selection, the Guardian reported.
"Look, apparently, he's unavailable for selection, so that's all I know at this stage," Bayliss said.
"He is a good batter but at this stage he is unavailable, so that's all I know."
Bayliss insisted that he is confident of putting up a good show and England would stand a good chance of winning if they continue their momentum displayed during the recently concluded series against New Zealand.
The South African born batsman was given hopes of an international recall by ECB chairman Colin Graves on condition of scoring runs in county cricket, only for Andrew Strauss to say that Pietersen would not be selected because of trust issues.
Pietersen, a veteran of 104 Test and 136 one-day caps for England, has been out of the national squad since his central contract was cancelled by the ECB following the team's Ashes washout by Australia in 2014.
