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London: Graham Thorpe believes England star batsman Kevin Pietersen is on the brink of finding his best form after struggling so far in his native South Africa.
Pietersen made his name in world cricket five years ago by scoring three One-day centuries in his homeland.
However, he has found runs hard to come by since returning from four months on the sidelines with an Achilles injury and he has yet to make a fifty during England's ongoing tour of South Africa.
England will now head into the first of a four-Test series starting next week with Pietersen, dismissed for 25 in a warm-up match on Wednesday, struggling for runs.
But they won the Ashes without the 29-year-old, ruled out of this year's series with Australia after just two Tests, and former England batsman Thorpe believes it is just a matter of time before Pietersen, who averages nearly fifty in Test cricket, comes good again.
"Once he gets into an innings he'll be fine," said Thorpe, speaking at an npower urban cricket event at Lord's on Wednesday.
England paceman James Anderson was ruled out Wednesday of a warm-up match against a South African Invitational XI with a knee injury and he has already had several pain-killing injections ahead of next week's first Test at Centurion.
Anderson was a key figure in England's recent 2-1 One-day series win over South Africa and Thorpe said: "Anderson's absence will be a big blow because you need the new ball swinging so England will have to work out which way they'll go, whether they have to go with (Graham) Onions or (Ryan) Sidebottom.
"The fear is that England will not be able to take 20 wickets and that's going to be England's hardest task," Thorpe added. "We look a little bit light there."
