Kevin Pietersen is sitting in a breakfast bar at the Hyatt Regency hotel near Darling Harbour. We are talking about the space he is in. It is a happy space, he says. A very happy space. No stress, no politics, no jealousy, no angst, a lot of golf and a bit of cricket, playing with his buddies on the T20 circuit in Australia, Dubai and England.

'I cannot wait to meet up with the Melbourne Stars next week,' he says of the team he plays for in the Big Bash. 'They're legends. Legends. I fit in and have fun. We are all on the same playing field, we all enjoy ourselves, we all have a laugh, we all play these tournaments around the world, there is no nonsense and we have… The. Best. Time. Ever. We are all just cruising on one happy train.'

The happy train stops in South Africa, too, where he is fulfilling a lifelong dream by building a lodge in the bush at Elephant Point on the Sabie River, spending time there with his wife, Jess, and his children, pursuing his passion for conservation and raising money to save the rhino. 'I've always been in the bush,' he says. 'That's me. I'm a bushman. I'm happier in the bush than I am sitting here. That's just my vibe.'

Kevin Pietersen has put his quarrels with the England team to the back of his mind

He is still only 37 but his banishment from the England team in 2014 seems as if it belongs to another lifetime now and the rancour of his falling-out with former England coach Andy Flower, Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss has ebbed away. He desperately wanted to play for England but he had started to hate it, too, and now that the struggle is over, he has the aura of a man freed from a prison.

He doesn't want to go back. Ever. But if England are fretting about the availability of Ben Stokes, who is serving a de facto ban while the Crown Prosecution Service decides whether he should be charged for his part in a Bristol attack that left a man with a fractured eye socket, Pietersen is a second absentee who is convinced he could make runs in this series.

It's just KP being KP. It's just what the website Cricinfo described as his 'brazen belief in his own ability'. It doesn't mean he wants back in. It doesn't mean he's hankering after what other people might label as redemption. He let that all go a long time ago, he says.

The former international feels 'liberated' that he he is no longer involved with England

'I feel liberated by not being involved with England,' he says. 'Massively. Because I didn't enjoy the last 12 to 18 months of my job with England. Like, I absolutely hated it. When the falling-out happened, it was ugly for everyone. People were smashing me from all sides and I just had to defend myself. But time goes by, more time goes by and I am not interested any more.

'I laugh at people who, if I make points about certain scenarios, they say, "He's still bitter and twisted about England". I'm like, "Dude, it was so long ago. How much interest do you think I've got in batting for England? Take a guess". The interest levels are less than zero. I'm in such a cool space.'

In his role as an analyst for Channel Nine at these Ashes, Pietersen was critical of England's approach to Australian spinner Nathan Lyon in their defeat in the first Test at the Gabba. And even though he is complimentary about the pace attack of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, he nods when he is asked if part of him feels he could still take the Aussie bowlers apart.

'I know I could,' he says. 'I batted yesterday in the nets in Sydney. I haven't batted for four months and I hit the ball as well as I ever hit it. In the last two or three years, I have batted better than when I batted for England. That's saying something. It's because I have been free.

Pietersen (right) spends his days in the bush of Africa and playing on the T20 circuit

'I've just played T20, which is totally relaxed, a totally fun environment and I've just enjoyed every tournament I've played in and I've absolutely smashed it. I've played with some real good coaches and some brilliant teams and I've just been totally me.

'If I was in that England side, I would be scoring runs off Australia. Of course. I wouldn't be blocking Lyon, I can tell you that. Lyon would not have bowled 24 overs at nought for 40 or whatever on day one of that Brisbane Test match. He might have got me out but I would have hit him for at least five sixes and then the pressure is on the bowler.

'People said the England batsmen were inexperienced players but at least show some intent. I would have shown intent. I would have used my feet first or second ball. The last hundred I scored against Australia, at Old Trafford in 2013, the first ball I ran at Lyon and hit him for six. Immediately, mid-on goes to the boundary and you start knocking it around.

'Stoneman, Vince – they batted beautifully but were they proactive enough against the spinner? They weren't. If you want to go from being a good player to a great player, those are the decisions you have to make and you have to act fast. My first Test match, I was hitting Glenn McGrath over his head for six because you have to make decisions fast.'

The 37-year-old is relishing playing in the Big Bash League for the Melbourne Stars soon

Pietersen played his last Test match for England in Sydney in January 2014 at the end of an ill-fated tour when England were destroyed by fast bowler Mitchell Johnson and in May 2015, Strauss, then the new ECB director of cricket, said that Pietersen would not be considered for the Ashes series that summer because there was 'a massive trust issue' between the two men.

There was, of course, already history. Pietersen sent texts to South African cricketers during the summer of 2012 that were critical of Strauss, who was then England captain. A few days ago, when Strauss chose not to punish England wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow for head-butting Aussie opener Cameron Bancroft in a bar, Pietersen took to Twitter. 'Strauss says OK to a head-butt greeting,' he wrote. 'Can't wait to see him again!'

Pietersen smiles. He is aware of the irony that his own international career was brought to a halt for infractions like whistling in the dressing room and now England are wrestling with what appear to be far weightier disciplinary issues.

While providing analysis for Channel Nine at the Ashes, Pietersen has been critical of England

He says: 'After I did that tweet, I actually saw him that day behind the commentary box at the Gabba and I said, "Right, now I'm going to head-butt you, Strauss". And I just laughed and walked off. How do I feel about him? I don't care. He doesn't affect my life at all. He has no impact or bearing on my life at all.

'In the UK, I get up with the kids, take the kids to school, come back, get on my golf buggy, go to the clubhouse, whack golf balls, play a round of golf with my buddies, come home, do the school run again, play golf with Jess, take pictures of animals on safari, play tournaments in South Africa, Dubai, Australia. It's not a stressful environment for me one iota.

'Look, Andrew Strauss says he does everything by the English cricket team. He doesn't do it by individuals. But the issue with Ben Stokes isn't about Ben Stokes. It's about Andrew Strauss. He's the one who's going to make this call about if and when Stokes returns. The CPS might make it for him but if they don't, this is on Strauss.

And has also ridiculed Ben Stokes' potential return to the England Ashes fold

'This is his biggest decision. Forget what he's ever done to me. This is his biggest call. He likes to do things by the book. By his book. He doesn't have much hair at the moment. He could lose it all on this decision. It's a monster. If he makes the wrong call here, it is a monster.

'I think it would be wrong for Stokes to be on this Ashes tour. From what we've seen on that coverage, that bloke doesn't play for England again for a while. I like Ben Stokes and I think he's a brilliant cricketer but when you jump into the realm of being an international sportsman, there are do's and there are don'ts.

'The don'ts are swearing at somebody in public, telling someone to go away if they ask you for an autograph, being out at night in the middle of a Test match. What he did, it doesn't even fall into the don'ts. It is a lot worse than the don'ts.

Pietersen believes Stokes 'should not be allowed to play for England again for a while'

'I was playing the Dunhill Links Championship at the time when the footage of him in Bristol emerged and some of the most influential people in the world were at that tournament and they were saying, "That bloke should never ever represent his country ever again for doing that".'

Pietersen is more sympathetic towards Bairstow, although, like Bancroft, puzzled by his chosen mode of greeting. 'I am still trying to find out how you greet someone with a head-butt,' he says. 'I love Jonny Bairstow but I think he's got a lot of insecurities.

'He wasn't treated fairly by England's senior players at all when he came into the team as a youngster. He was properly put under the cosh. They were always taking the p**s out of him. He was targeted by some of the senior players so maybe he is trying to be over-friendly. I don't know. I wasn't there.'

Pietersen claims part of him believes he could tear the Australian bowlers apart even now

Pietersen is at his happiest now when he is talking about his lodge on the Sabie River, his efforts to help stop the butchery of rhinos and visiting South Africa with his wife, his seven-year-old son, Dylan, and his young daughter, Rosie. After a trip he made a few years ago to tag and microchip rhinos, conservation has become his great passion.

'When you find out how rhinos are being butchered, how a rhino gets killed every eight hours in Africa, and the rhino horn is worth more than the most expensive mineral, it is shocking,' he says. 'Some a***hole has gone and said it has medicinal purposes and then there are p***ks that say it's so expensive they put it in their cocktail and they show off. I hate it. I'm so lucky because my dream growing up was to own a property in the bush. That was an African dream of mine. I'm six months away from that dream.'

'I love England. I love flicking between our houses in Africa and London. England's been so good to me and my family and I'm not moving away but there are six flights every night to Johannesburg. So what I say is "geography is history".'

While he claims his interest levels in England 'are less than zero, I'm in such a cool space'

Pietersen's own history does not haunt him now. He looks back on it with something approaching equanimity. Maybe that's partly because his life is sweet. Maybe it's because the years have eased the pain of his schism with the ECB.

Whatever it is, he is even happy to acknowledge the debt he owes to English cricket. 'I respect what the ECB did for me in giving me that opportunity to play a hundred Test matches so I will never disrespect them in an ungrateful manner because it's not my personality,' he says.

'I've had my ding-dongs. But I was lucky to play one Test. I ended up with 104. I ended up with a lot of runs. It's so long gone and all the s*** has disappeared from my mental space so I'm OK with talking about it all now.

'Do I step back and resent what happened? No way. I am 37. I am going to be living in my African lodge for a lot of the year. I am going to be in my house at Wentworth for a lot of the year. Do I worry? Do I have any stress? No. It's gone. A long time ago.'

The Mail on Sunday is making a donation to Save Our Rhinos Africa/India (SORAI).