As England are drilled in preparation for Monday’s first warm-up match in balmy St Kitts, one of their recent discards will be knuckling down in the somewhat more brisk climes of county cricket, hoping a weight of runs can force his way back in.

Nick Compton, who made the switch back from Somerset to Middlesex during the winter, is curious about the future of English cricket and asks whether change is truly on the cards this summer. Will the arrival of a new chairman at the England and Wales Cricket Board in May truly bring a fresh start for all? Can a player in his 30s, previously discarded in the name of “culture”, really return to the fold? Kevin Pietersen’s name, if you cannot already tell, had cropped up during the conversation.

Compton cannot help but wonder whether he, too, was dropped for reasons other than form; that his face simply did not fit. The 31-year-old, however, is also conscious of how analysis of his handling by England, during a brief six-month spell that ended two years ago, will be perceived.

He is not bitter and is happy to concede that his chance was possibly taken with “one-and-a-half hands, not two”. Nine Tests, two centuries and an average of 31 – it is an honest appraisal of his own returns. But he can also take pride in his partnership with Alastair Cook that boasted the highest average yield – 57.93 runs – of any English opening pair in the past 53 years.

“I feel like I’m in the prime of my career now and I want to kick on again,” he says. “In my own mind I’ve been the most prolific top-order run-scorer in the last four or five years in domestic cricket. I’m not going to give up hope. I don’t want to accept it.”

But if an England recall is possible, then it would be helpful if questions over his own disposal were answered honestly. “It’s like being dumped by a girlfriend and you don’t think they have given you the real reasons. There’s no closure,” he says.

Did he feel there was a pressure to fit in a certain way? “I do,” he replies. Did he ever think it wasn’t just runs that saw it end? “Yeah, I do. But I’ll never get that answer. You just get the same comment from selectors: ‘The door is never closed, keep scoring runs.’ But then you hear rumours. I thought I was going well and then suddenly you get dropped and spend nights in bed lying awake reflecting.” The right-hander recalls a nightmare final Test, the second against New Zealand at Headingley in 2013, in which his dream of turning out in an Ashes series that summer ended at the hands of the then head coach Andy Flower. Scores of one and nine, the latter over a torturous 75 minutes at the crease when quicker runs were the order of the day, did him no favours. But then the full story, he insists, was not known at the time.

“I had broken my finger in the first Test after [the then batting coach] Graham Gooch hit me in the nets – no one knew,” Compton explains. “Then I got hit in the ribs on the morning of the second Test by [the then limited-overs coach] Ashley Giles.

“On the fifth day I couldn’t move, I couldn’t get out of bed, I couldn’t breathe in properly and I definitely couldn’t throw or dive for the ball. I had a scan and it came back as a hairline fracture. So I could not field on that day. And that’s when Andy Flower went absolutely berserk.”

It was a second dressing down, with Compton adding that he had already been told off by Flower for practising the pull shot while fielding in the deep. The senior bowlers, he was told, did not like it and that had to be respected. “He made it clear he wasn’t happy with me not fielding that final day and you wonder did that have an impact? And you want answers because you want back in,” he adds. “That said, you can pontificate all you want but as the player, the difficult part is that ultimately you are the one that loses out.”

It is here where the issue of culture is discussed. Have England gone too far in putting team morale before runs and wickets? “I’ve always had the belief you must pick the best team and manage it. Every player should be available,” Compton replies. “You want winners and if KP has his pads on, is in form and hungry, then I would want to be watching. The game is about bums on seats and we’re in danger of losing that.

“It would be nice if we could all move on from the past. I think in cricket it’s about putting forward independent thinkers. We need them in this game. I just hope we’re not trying to mould everyone into being a certain type of individual or person. The great thing about cricket is we are all different.”

It is at this point that Compton pulls out his smartphone, upon which he has saved the famous quote from former Tottenham striker Steve Archibald for future reference: “Team spirit is an illusion glimpsed in the aftermath of victory.”

“You look back at the best teams – like the great Australia side – and it is well-documented there were personal issues,” Compton adds. “Whether you like a bloke or not, as long as you are both working towards the greater good, I couldn’t care less. That’s where things need to be looked at. There are some very good players out there and perhaps their faces don’t fit for whatever reason. That has never made sense to me. You should encourage individuals. Sport is won by good individuals, players with high skill levels.”

All of this gets Compton no closer to a recall, of course. And with Yorkshire’s Adam Lyth and the returning Jonathan Trott called up as possible opening partners for the upcoming series against West Indies, and Sam Robson only recently jettisoned after seven Tests, it already looks a tough route back. Compton remains grateful to Somerset for allowing him to attempt this at Middlesex having agreed his release one season into a three-year contract.

“I had five brilliant years at Taunton but being dropped from England hit me hard,” he adds. “Having fallen off the England cliff and reaching 30, it hit home that my life in London was important to me.Somerset understood where I was at and were fantastic in the way they handled it. My goal now is to earn the respect of my new team. I can’t just walk in. I have to earn it.”

To do that Compton will revert to the currency he knows best – county runs, with the aim of passing 1,000 for a fifth consecutive season. And then who knows? If the idea of Pietersen playing for England again can be countenanced, then truly anything is possible.