England bowler Stuart Broad has said that Kevin Pietersen's sacking from the national side was "unnecessary" and that the situation could have been handled differently.

Pietersen was told he wouldn't play international cricket again after England's 5-0 Ashes whitewash in Australia last year, and Broad believes that the batsman has every right to feel aggrieved.

He told BBC Sport: "It just became a bit of a media uproar, the whole sacking. It just seemed a bit unnecessary when every other player in the history of the game just gets dropped for poor form.

"His form was pretty poor over 18 months, every other player just gets dropped. Obviously Kevin's very disappointed with that and every player should be disappointed if you're not going to represent your own country again. It could have been handled very differently, I think by everyone."

Pietersen scored 23 centuries in 104 Test matches.