England skipper Eoin Morgan insists exiled batsman Kevin Pietersen has no place in his one-day side – at least for the “foreseeable future”.

Pietersen was unceremoniously dumped from the squad after last year’s Ashes drubbing in Australia and has since been highly critical of management and some ex-teammates.

But he has not given up on returning to international cricket, claiming on Tuesday he believed Morgan would welcome him back into the fold.

Morgan replaced Alastair Cook as ODI captain in December and had previously spoken out in defence of Pietersen before taking the role.

“I think he probably would, yeah,” Pietersen told Ricky Ponting in an interview on Channel Ten.

“I don’t see why not, I’m hitting it okay and I get along pretty well with most of the guys in there, if not all of them.”

But Morgan on Thursday moved to clarify the situation ahead of Friday’s Tri-Series opener against Australia at the SCG.

“I’m very happy with the group of players that I have – I think this is the best group of players we have to drive the England team forward over the next two months in particular,” he told reporters.

“Kevin’s situation hasn’t changed over the last year. It’s been reiterated over months and days his position. It was reiterated before Christmas by the chairman of selectors and I am reiterating it again just to clear it up.”

When pressed on whether the side would be stronger with Pietersen, Morgan labelled it a “terrible question”.

“Kevin is not in the side, he won’t be in the side for the foreseeable future so there’s no point in answering that question,” he added.