Former England skipper Michael Vaughan has said that Kevin Pietersen should be central to England's future if they want to win more matches.
Reports suggest that high-profile batsman Pietersen, one of the big English failures in the current Ashes series, is under pressure to vaccate his place in the team.
Pietersen, who averages just over 47 in 104 Tests, was dismissed for three and six in the final Test to finish with 294 runs in the series at 29.40.
Writing in his column for Daily Telegraph, Vaughan hoped that England do not take the easy way out of this debacle by making Pietersen the victim for the Ashes failure.
He wanted Pietersen to be given more responsibility, and suggested that he should be made vice-captain, or he has to go.
Vaughan made it clear that there is no point keeping Pietersen on as a peripheral figure of the team, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.
According to him, Cook and coach need to involve Pietersen properly in the team and ask him how he sees his own future, and his view on the style of cricket the team have to play to become No.1.