Love him or loathe him, Kevin Pietersen's return from a knee injury in time to face Australia in the Ashes series will have left England supporters breathing a sigh of relief.

The controversial South Africa-born middle-order batsman, who divides opinion off the field with as much ease has he destroys opposition bowlers on it, is the England player the Australians fear the most.

"There's only certain players that you can fear and they're the Pietersens, the (Brian) Laras and Viv Richards," former Australian batsman Damien Martyn said.