Surrey director of cricket Alec Stewart has said that he has re-signed Kevin Pietersen this season because the batsman is "run-hungry".
The 34-year-old has agreed a deal to play for the Division Two side this summer in a bid to prove to England selectors that he deserves an international recall.
Stewart told BBC Sport: "If he can come back into our side and score heavily, he will ask questions of the selectors.
"He's been as good as gold with us. If he was a bad character, we wouldn't have had him. We hope he will be exactly the same this time, if not even more hard-working and desperate to score runs.
"Clearly if England do well against West Indies as we expect, then it will take an injury or a huge loss of form for a vacancy to become available, but all Kevin's said is that he's going to do is score runs, and then he will sit back and see what happens."
Pietersen was sacked from England duty last year, but incoming ECB chairman Colin Graves has suggested that he could earn a recall.
