During one period of Melbourne Stars' Big Bash League match against Sydney Sixers, where in the space of 16 deliveries the veteran crunched seven fours and a six, a tweet from retired AFL great Matthew Lloyd exemplified how the man Australians generally damned as the villain over the past decade is now being treated with not just grudging respect by cricket-watchers but, based on his reception at the MCG, genuine warmth.

"He can bat and he knows it. Watch the strut after each boundary," Lloyd said. "Never thought much of him, but have loved seeing him in BBL."

The first time Pietersen felt not just appreciation from spectators but adoration for his batting as a whole rather than specific shots, came in July 2008, at Lord's in what was his 40th Test for England, when he made 152 against his country of birth, South Africa.

"I'll never forget it . . . I acknowledged the crowd for the hundred and I went to take guard again, and the crowd just kept clapping," he recalled this week. "That for me was . . . a proper 'wow' experience."

The stakes of a BBL match at a quarter-filled MCG cannot compare to a Test at the home of cricket, yet Pietersen still appreciated the praise from the crowd. Tellingly it came before he had batted.

"It's been overwhelming, the way I've been able to change a lot of people's perceptions," he said, ahead of the season's second Melbourne derby on Saturday night, at the MCG between the Stars and Renegades.

"Even walking down to where Bay 13, where I used to be absolutely murdered for years, everyone was cheering and clapping and saying 'KP, you're a legend, we love you', and I'm going, 'What?' "

"Honestly, it's just so cool . . . I'm just loving doing what I'm doing. There's no sideshow to it. It's just I'm playing cricket: if I get runs I get runs, if I don't get runs I don't."

The central argument of the England and Wales Cricket Board hierarchy to expel Pietersen was what they alleged was his destructive influence on the team. Since arriving in Melbourne a month ago, however, Pietersen has countered – privately as well as publicly – that "destructive diva" reputation.

He played club cricket on his first weekend, and obliged the throng in Glen Waverley wanting photographs and autographs. He has stayed in the same hotel as his teammates – unlike Chris Gayle during his 2012-13 stint at Sydney Thunder – and is regularly snapped dining with them (and not just those who have played international cricket).

One instance that, on the face of it, could be seen as selfish was the decision of Pietersen, who made a half-century on debut in Adelaide and then failed in game two against Hobart, to fly home to England for Christmas, which caused him to miss the team's match away to Brisbane.

The Stars' unexpected loss, in what is the only win for the cellar-dwelling Heat, meant Pietersen returned with the highly rated Stars reeling at 0-3 and on the brink of being out of finals contention for the first time. It was a disastrous situation given making the final was the unofficial pass mark for the team, internally as well as externally.

Pietersen nevertheless held no fears he would return to find teammates resenting him for his decision to miss the match. That was partly because returning to England for Christmas had been a prerequisite to him signing for the Stars. It was also because he felt that, in just over a fortnight, he had built up enough rapport with his teammates for them to understand and accept his decision.

"It wasn't something that was just sprung on the Stars. It was something that I'd talked to them about since July," he said. "There were a lot of people saying 'You're a no-team man again, you're running away' . . . I wouldn't have come [to the BBL if the Stars were not satisfied with it].

"The guys were amazing, the guys totally understood. It'd be the same as me, if one of the other guys went home and he was in my position and he'd had the year I'd had. I had 23 people at my house on Christmas Day and Boxing Day and the day after, all family from South Africa . . . all the kids. That is so much more important to me than cricket."

One of the topics of conversation at Christmas was just how well Pietersen was playing. He reckons it is his best since 2012, when he scored 1824 runs for England and in the IPL, with six centuries.

Fitness is a big influence. The microfracture surgery he had on his knee after his England exit, having played on "one leg" and relied on painkilling injections in last summer's Ashes, has banished the chronic pain and meant he is no longer a liability in the field. The other is his positive mindset, which has been helped by returning to a tight-knit team environment, which he had missed.

"It's been exceptional. Being part of a team and socialising with the players, being able to train every day, travelling and playing and then reviewing together, then having a drink . . . it's just that whole team camaraderie, which is so good," he said.

Pointedly, Pietersen insisted he was not acting any differently in the Stars' dressing room to the way he did with England that got him sacked.

"There's no jealousy here. That's the fact," he said. "None of these guys are jealous of anything. We're just good guys, hanging out and playing cricket. All these guys play in franchises around the world, they've all benefited from the IPL. The England lads: too much jealousy. I was the only one profiting – very, very well – out of India, and in an auction, if you don't get picked up, it's pretty demoralising."

While Pietersen will return to the Stars next season what he will do for the rest of this year is unclear. His release by Delhi will force him back into the IPL auction if he wants to play, while his county situation for this year in England is still to be confirmed. Nevertheless, he said he was very optimistic about 2015, on the basis that the publication of his autobiography last year would hopefully end the barbs, from both sides, about the circumstances of his expulsion, which would help him "be positive . . . score runs, enjoy my life, have fun".

In thriving against the Sixers during the week, and then laughing uproariously when his dropped catch in the super-over fell into the sure hands of his captain, Cameron White, that he has started 2015 on track to achieve those goals.