England batsman Kevin Pietersen has insisted that criticism aimed at him no longer has any effect.

Pietersen has not been able to muster the number of runs his reputation demands during England's tour of the UAE, where they are playing Pakistan.

This has led to criticism of the South African-born batsman, but Pietersen says that he has thick enough skin to deal with it.

"I'm absolutely not interested in it," said the 31-year-old. "I used to be, but now I've got thick skin. People can say what they want ... but my skin now is very, very thick - very.

"It's quite funny the abuse we're getting on Twitter at the moment - 'Get back in the nets'. If [I] tweet anything about anything, [it's] 'Shouldn't you be in the nets?'

"It's like 'No, I can't be in the nets 24 hours in a day'. I have actually mentally got to try and get my head around things, and having a break away from things and coming back to things is actually quite a good thing."

England, who currently lead the ODI series 2-0, will be looking to secure a series win when the two teams meet again on Saturday.