International selection Following his strong performances for Somerset, Kieswetter was part of the England Performance Programme squad that spent eight weeks of the English winter training in
Loughborough and
Pretoria. The South African national cricket captain,
Graeme Smith, said he wanted Kieswetter to return to play cricket in South Africa; rather than directly inviting him to play for the
South Africa national cricket team, he stated that "the challenge is to get him back into our franchise system first, but he is certainly someone we have seen and would like to get back into the system". Kieswetter repeated his desire to play international cricket for England. In January 2010, he was named as part of the
England Lions squad to tour the
United Arab Emirates for a series against
Pakistan A. The England head coach,
Andy Flower, described Kieswetter's performances during that tour as "a really good start", and described the Twenty20 warm-up match between the England Lions and the England senior team that followed the tour as "a chance for him to impress". During that match, which was played on the day that he qualified for England, Kieswetter scored to help the Lions beat the senior team. After England's drawn
T20I series with
Pakistan in mid-February 2010, Kieswetter was added to the senior England squad for the ODI series against
Bangladesh. He was immediately included in the team, playing as a specialist batsman alongside wicket-keeper
Matt Prior, in the first warm-up match on 23 February against the Bangladesh Cricket Board XI. He scored 143, his career-best one-day score, from 123 balls. That score, and his performances for the England Lions, led to Kieswetter's selection for the first ODI against Bangladesh on 28 February. Opening the innings alongside captain
Alastair Cook, Kieswetter struggled in his first over; he made in an innings described by
ESPNcricinfos Andrew Miller as "tinged with nerves" and "chancy". In the next match, two days later, Kieswetter misplayed his first ball and was nearly
dismissed; he was then caught off a similar mishit from the next ball bowled. In the third match, he scored his first international century– which helped England to 284 for five and a 45-run victory. England won the series 3–0. In contrast to the "hard-hitting batting" which
Geoff Miller, the England selector, had cited as one of the reasons for his inclusion, When the England squad was announced for the
2010 ICC World Twenty20, Kieswetter was named as the only wicket-keeper in the squad, replacing Prior. Kieswetter opened the innings with
Michael Lumb throughout the tournament, and
ESPNcricinfos Andrew McGlashan identified their performances as one of the reasons that England reached
the final. During the final, Kieswetter was England's top-scorer, hitting from , and was named as the man of the match as England won their first ICC global title. During the tournament, Kieswetter scored , the fourth-most of any player, at an average of 31.71 and a
strike rate of 116.84.
Dropped and recalled by England After returning to England, Kieswetter's form dipped, and he scored 121runs from eight ODIs against Australia and Bangladesh. As a result, when England played five ODIs against Pakistan in September, Kieswetter was omitted and Worcestershire's
Steven Davies was preferred, although Kieswetter was included in the T20I squad. Kieswetter opened the innings alongside Davies, who was playing as wicket-keeper, in the two T20Is, but made scores of only six and sixteen. Although named in the T20I squad for the tour of Australia, he was not selected to play, and instead took part in the England Performance Programme XI tour, before joining up with the England Lions to take part in the
Regional Four Day Competition in the West Indies. During the competition, Kieswetter scored two centuries, against the
Leeward Islands and the
Combined Campuses and Colleges. Kieswetter began the
2011 season strongly for Somerset, scoring in his first four one-day matches, including two centuries. Another century, in the
County Championship prompted Jeremy James of
ESPNcricinfo to ask "whether Craig Kieswetter will regain his place in England's one-day side before
Jos Buttler assumes it ahead of him". His form earned him a recall to England's one-day squads for the series against Sri Lanka, Geoff Miller saying "[Kieswetter] will offer some real fire power with the bat along with his ability with the gloves". In his first match back for England, the Twenty20 match, Kieswetter scored only four runs, but he was England's top-scorer in the first ODI match, with . He struck another half-century in the fourth match of the series: he scored 72 not out as England won by ten wickets. A week later, playing for Somerset against
Nottinghamshire, he scored , the highest innings of his first-class career, as part of a 290-run partnership with
James Hildreth. Kieswetter remained England wicket-keeper for the
T20I and ODI matches against India late in the season. In the T20I, Buttler, his fellow Somerset wicket-keeper, made his debut, albeit as a specialist batsman;
Jonny Bairstow, the
Yorkshire wicket-keeper, made his debut in the final ODI in a similar role. In that series, Kieswetter struggled against the
moving ball in English conditions but was praised for his attacking batting, including from in the second match. Based on the number of appearances that he made for England, Kieswetter was awarded an incremental contract by the
England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in September 2011. During England's subsequent 5–0 ODI series loss in India, described by the ''
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack''s Stephen Brenkley as "a tour too far for England", Kieswetter was the only England batsman to maintain a strike rate above 100. He scored one half-century during the tour, and was included in the England Lions squad that toured Sri Lanka three months later.
End of international career Playing for the Lions, Kieswetter moved into the middle-order, rather than opening the batting; this was intended to prepare him for a similar switch with the senior England team to allow
Kevin Pietersen to open. He scored a century and a half-century to help England win the series 3–2, though he was outperformed by Buttler. In early 2012, playing against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates, Kieswetter batted only twice in the ODI series, and was praised for his 43-run contribution in the fourth match, though George Dobell of
ESPNcricinfo identified his wicket-keeping as "still not as polished as he would like". Although Kieswetter dropped down the order in ODIs, he retained his place opening the batting in T20Is. In contrast to the 2010 World Twenty20, when the England players were told to attack bat selflessly, in 2012 the team was instructed to avoid losing early wickets, and Kieswetter struggled to adapt his game to score low-risk singles and rotate the strike. During the
2012 ICC World Twenty20, he lost his place in England's T20I team after a match against New Zealand in which he scored four runs from fourteen balls. The following year, he retained his place in the ODI team for the tour of India, although
ESPNcricinfos Alex Winter suggested that it might be due to "England's desire to protect the workload of their players ahead of back-to-back
Ashes series." Winter's colleague, Dobell, described the England ODI wicket-keeper position as one of England's key areas requiring resolution, citing both Bairstow and Buttler as candidates to take over, as well as the possibility of Matt Prior, the England Test wicket-keeper, reclaiming the role. Kieswetter played the first three ODIs of the series, scoring 24 not out, 18 and 0 before he was dropped and replaced by Buttler. Dobell described Kieswetter as "perhaps... a little unfortunate", but cited his inability to adjust his game and the number of balls he blocked as the reasons for his removal. He played , scoring at an average of 30.11. ==Later domestic career==