Kevin Pietersen: 'Dressing room vibe was poor in Australia'

Former England batsman Kevin Pietersen has admitted that there was a poor vibe in the team's dressing room during their Ashes whitewash defeat to Australia.

Alastair Cook's side were hammered 5-0 by the Baggy Greens just three months after defeating Michael Clarke's men on home soil.

Pietersen was dropped from the side following the ill-fated tour, but he has revealed that he now feels pleased to be out of the environment.

He wrote in his column in The Telegraph: "It has been a relief to be out of the dressing room because it was not a pleasant place in Australia. We were losing and in my opinion the environment was poor and I was not alone in thinking that.

"It is a view shared by a number of the players who have spoken their minds since coming back from the tour.

"Now I have had time to reflect on the winter it is clear to me that back-to-back Ashes should never happen again. It was really hard for the England team to go to Australia and defend the Ashes just weeks after winning at home."

The 33-year-old played in 104 Test matches for England, scoring 8,181 runs.