England star Kevin Pietersen is running out of chances to find form before the Ashes, and admits he’s also worried about his knee lasting out the series.

Pietersen was rested from England’s opening tour match against a West Australian XI and faced just 10 balls in the rain-affected game in Hobart, before being trapped lbw by Australia A’s Trent Copeland for 8.

The 33-year-old will be anxious to spend time in the middle in the final tune-up game against an Invitational XI in Sydney starting on Wednesday, otherwise he’ll head into the first Test starting on November 21 without a proper hit in more than two months.

Also of concern to Pietersen and England is that the man who has tormented Australia so often in the past is still struggling with the knee injury that forced him home early from New Zealand earlier this year.

With two days abandoned in Hobart due to rain, Pietersen spent plenty of time in the gym putting work into his legs.

Pietersen put off surgery to play in the Ashes and says his knee will take constant management to get him through five Tests.

“I’m working on my legs hoping my legs hold up because I’ve had the knee issue so I’ve just got to make sure the rehab continues,” Pietersen told the ECB website.

“Because I could break down and I don’t want to break down.

“I want to play the whole series.”

Pietersen was key in England’s breakthrough 2005 series win over Ricky Ponting’s Australians, and during the last tour down under in 2010-11 he averaged 60.

The controversial batsman had good mate Shane Warne endorse him for the England captaincy at the expense of Alastair Cook this week, meaning the tourists were once again forced to deal with off-field distractions while they failed to see any action on the pitch.

When the rain finally had a break on Saturday, Pietersen come out to bat with Jonathan Trott, after Alastair Cook (154 not out) and Michael Carberry (153no) retired out to give the rest of the order a go.

Pietersen stroked a boundary off his pads and another straight down the ground in successive overs, but in the next one he faced immediately after lunch he was hit in front by one that stayed low.