The South African-born Kevin Pietersen proved he was cut from the same cloth as his good mates Shane Warne and Ian Botham when he scored three spectacular one-day centuries over the winter against South Africa.
He was all bristling aggression and defiance in front of hostile crowds accusing him of being a traitor to the land of his birth. The last of the three, his 100* at East London, from only 69 balls, was the fastest hundred ever made for England.
But it was not yet enough to guarantee the Ashes berth which he craved and he needed to audition all over again in the one-day games against Australia. Again he thrived on the pressure, making a brilliant 91* to defeat Australia at Bristol, and a gutsy 74 at the Oval, with England's innings in tatters and the Test squad about to be announced.
His temperament was not in question but some critics complained that Pietersen was just a good one-day player with exceptional hand-eye coordination. A first-class average of 52 suggests otherwise. Glaring technical faults are not apparent yet and his major weakness appears to be a tendency to score as many ducks as hundreds.
When he does get in, he is capable of making very big scores, such as his 254* for Nottinghamshire against Middlesex in 2002, and his 221 against Warwickshire in 2003.
Although he has pledged himself fully to the England cause, Pietersen is only available because of South Africa's racial quotas. When he was left out of his side because of the new rules, the headstrong young man flew to Johannesburg to demand an explanation from Dr Ali Bacher.
He was told there was nothing that could be done and, determined to further his career, he decided to leave for his mother's country, England. He was enticed to Nottinghamshire by Clive Rice and embarked on serving the four-year qualification period that culminated in his explosive beginnings in ODIs.
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Geoff Boycott's verdict: