London: Justin Langer has said Australia “would love” to have England’s Kevin Pietersen in their side.

The South Africa-born batsman enhanced his growing reputation with 226, his maiden Test double hundred, in England’s crushing innings victory over the West Indies at Headingley.

Only Australia’s Sir Donald Bradman, widely regarded as the greatest Test batsman of all time, has scored more runs in his first 25 Tests than the 26-year-old Pietersen’s 2,448.

Langer was on the opposite side when Pietersen scored the first of his eight Test hundreds — 158 at The Oval — to wrap up a draw that secured England’s 2005 Ashes win.

The former opener, who quit after Australia’s 5-0 Ashes sweep earlier this year, was also on the field to see Pietersen again score 158 in the Adelaide Test of that campaign.

“From an Australian’s point of view, the greatest compliment we can give an opposition player is that we don’t really like him much,” Langer wrote in his column.

“The reason we don’t really like Pietersen is that he displays traits which rub us up the wrong way. He struts a little, he is aggressive in everything he does, he takes on any bowler and he stares you in the eyes with the confidence of a prize fighter.

“We would love to have him in our team, because we love the way he goes about his business. He is an outstanding player in that he backs his ability to the hilt and he makes the game go forward every time he is in the middle.”