article_snippet.sent: I would like to think I was settled at number three after last summer.
article_snippet.sent: Even with the ever-present Pietersen factor Gary Ballance added: 'That's international sport, I haven't doubted my place.
article_snippet.sent: There needs to be an opening for KP to make a sensational England comeback.
article_snippet.sent: But there looks to be no room in the line-up for Pietersen.
article_snippet.sent: Ballance at number three followed by Ian Bell and Joe Root seems a rock solid middle order for the Ashes this summer, by when KP will be 35.