England meet their oldest enemy Australia in the first of five tests on July 8 and by that time Pietersen should have an informed grasp of what to expect after Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher gave him some “very, very useful” information. They were all team-mates with the Bangalore Indian Premier League franchise in April.

Bowlers such as Mitchell Johnson, Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus, and batsmen such as opener Philip Hughes will be new to Pietersen, as all are due to play their first Ashes test match.   

“I have had a lot of communication with Kallis and Boucher. A lot of it was very, very useful,” Pietersen told reporters at a team media day at Edgbaston.

“They told me about their new bowlers who we haven’t seen much of like Siddle and how to dismiss quite a few of their batsmen as well, in terms of how to bowl to some of their top players. I spoke to Kallis and Boucher almost daily about (that) stuff.

“I spoke to them about a lot of people. (Philip) Hughes doesn’t create me too many problems because I’m a batsman, so most of my talk was about their bowlers but we certainly did talk about two or three of their batsmen as well.”

He added: “I’ve only seen Siddle on television and he looks like a workhorse who runs in and hits the deck hard - that’s all you can ask of a fast bowler. Yet again Australia has produced someone who is going to run in all day and be fierce competition.”

Pietersen, who claimed he is now over an Achilles tendon injury, said he is not an avid watcher of opponents on video but admitted it was still an exercise he needed to do before Cardiff to familiarise himself with bowlers like left-arm paceman Johnson.

“In this day and age with all the technology flying around it would be stupid for you not to know what you should expect,” said Pietersen, “so although we haven’t played them and don’t know how big their hearts are and whether they are going to bat all day, we can still have a look at what to expect.”

England’s premier batsman, who scored 158 at the Oval in 2005 to help England draw the match and win their first Ashes series in 18 years, said this summer’s contest would not be able to match 2005 for drama because “that was the best series ever”.

One thing he is upbeat about though is the fact Australia is minus retired greats such as Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Matthew Hayden and especially wicketkeeper-batsman Adam Gilkchrist, who helped seal the 5-0 Ashes whitewash in 2006-07.

“It certainly does give us a lift (not to see those names),” Pietersen said. “The big one we don’t see now is Gilchrist coming in at seven.

“Especially after Perth when we got ourselves in a pretty good position and he came in and hit one of the quickest hundreds ever, and that was just demoralising and it takes it right out of you. So that is a guy we are happy not to see.

“It is now just be a case of concentrating on what they have got and capitalising on what weaknesses we think they have got and work on our positives so we come out of the series winning.”