Great to have Kevin Pietersen back - Andrew Strauss

England captain Andrew Strauss has said he cannot wait for star batsman Kevin Pietersen to join the squad in South Africa before the ODI series begins. Pietersen couldn't travel with the squad as he's still in the final stages of his recovery from an Achilles injury which kept him out for over three months.

England arrived in South Africa yesterday for a two and a half month tour which includes four Tests, five ODIs and two Twenty20s.

"I'm genuinely excited about having him back," Strauss said in Bloemfontein after the team's first training session. "We've missed his quality, we've missed his influence and I also think he's going to come back very refreshed, hungry and motivated.

"When you have a player of that quality, with that frame of mind, you can expect him to go out and play really well. We don't want him to come back before his ready, so he's got to make sure he's completely over his injury before we bring him back. But it's going to be a great boost for us to have him back in the environment."

Coming off a 2-1 Ashes victory at home, Strauss said his team will have to put in an extra effort to topple the No.1 Test team in the world in their backyard. England took the Test series 2-1 in their previous tour in 2004-05 when the South Africans went through a form slump.

"We're not going to get carried away with ourselves at this stage. There is a lot of hard work to be done if we want to get there and achieve that goal," Strauss said. "In some ways, if we're going to achieve that goal, we're going to have to play better than we've ever played in my time as an England player. So it's a bit of a step up for us and comes at a good time.

"I think as a group we understand the extent and the challenge that this tour sets us - playing the number one ranked side. This is an opportunity for us to see where we are as a side and also to make some steps forward in terms of becoming more consistent and more able to deal with the best sides in the world on a consistent basis.

"We have some ideas as to how we might continue our development in one-day cricket in particular at this stage, and we look forward to putting those into action in the coming weeks."

England begin their tour with a one-day match against Eagles on November 6.