HAMPSHIRE and England batting sensation Kevin Pietersen believes he is not ready for Test match cricket.

Despite a record-breaking start to his one day international career, the 24-year-old reckons he will need to make a good start to the season with Hampshire to have any chance of playing in this summer's Ashes series

He said: "I'm nowhere near Tests yet, I've only played a few ODIs, but playing with Shane Warne will definitely smooth out a possible confrontation if I do happen to come up against him in the summer!"

But despite his belief that he is still has plenty to learn, Pietersen has an answer for the doubters who have suggested that his leg-side bias could be exposed at the highest level.

"In one-day cricket you have to be able to hit a ball into three different areas at once. You've got to know that if the ball's there, you've got three different areas where you could score. That's how I go about it. I open up the off-side, I go down the ground, I open up the leg-side and I try to make sure I get a run a ball.

"I play differently in first-class cricket in England. My style doesn't change, I'm a positive player who likes to hit boundaries and score quickly, but in first-class cricket your technique changes, you can become a lot more patient. So in Test match or first-class cricket I won't have to hit the ball through the leg-side all the time. There'll be more scoring options all over."

Meanwhile, Tony Greig, the former England captain who was also born and learnt his cricket in South Africa, has offered Pietersen some worldly advice: "The one thing you can't change is you're South African.

"The fact that you're lucky enough to be eligible to play for England is like a business decision.

"The England team is just getting good and people probably want the team to be Anglo-Saxon to its boots but people who have played for England have always been born all over the place."