Why KP won't be afraid of change

"Definitely, without a shadow of a doubt," said opener Ian Bell. "He's been honest with us all so far, and that's fantastic. He has set down the rules about how he wants us to play - he wants positive, aggressive cricket - and I'm sure he has already thought about what kind of line-up he wants in India, where conditions will be completely different.

"I wouldn't be surprised if KP re-jigged something along the way. The batting line-up might be switched around, and the bowling because maybe he will want to play two spinners over there. We might see Swann and Patel playing together in India."

Everything touched by Pietersen so far has turned to gold, with Andrew Flintoff revelling in the key batting role at No5, Owais Shah showing what he could do in a difficult situation at No3 at Lord's, Patel taking wickets and scoring important runs and Harmison looking like a born-again fast bowler. And although it was not the captain's idea to use Bell as an opener, the Warwickshire batsman has started to look in this series as though he might make a real success of the job in partnership with Matt Prior.

"No3 would be my favourite spot," admitted Bell, who enjoyed only modest success after being pushed to the top of the order against New Zealand earlier this summer but shared excellent stands of 77, 85 not out and 101 with Prior in the first three games of the South Africa series.

"But we've done pretty well and it would be good to get a run together and keep building on something that has started quite nicely. Getting more of an understanding about how we play is the key and if we can keep setting a platform for the innings that will be good.

"Matt plays his way and is strong hitting over the top. My way is a little bit more cultured, if you like; just playing proper shots. I think the blend is quite nice." Now 26, Bell has appeared in 74 limited-over internationals and seen England search far and wide for the right formula. "I would say this is probably the best one-day team I've played in," he said. "And this series has certainly been the best performance. There's a really good feel about the squad at the moment."

"We knew after losing the Test series, we needed to show people we could play good cricket. That is probably another reason why we have played so well in the one-days. Everyone has been desperate to put on a performance.

"That is something Kev has spoken about. In every game, everyone has got to be desperate to win and, hopefully, we can carry on playing our one-day and Test cricket like that."