High summer is not yet upon us (it was decidedly wintry at Headingley on Saturday) and already Kevin Pietersen has had more cause to celebrate than many an average batsman would throughout an entire Test series. Up until his double hundred, which came mid-way through the afternoon, this summer's celebrations had been more than usually muted affairs. Hundreds at Lord's and at Headingley were acknowledged with little more than a raised bat and wave in the direction of the girlfriend, recognition perhaps of the wretched bowling attack the West Indies have brought to England. His double hundred, though, was given the full leap-in-the-air, arms-raised treatment. It was his fourth 'double' in first-class cricket but, tellingly, his first for England. It clearly meant a lot.

That was evident from the manner in which he approached it. Although he moved from 150 to 200 at nearly a run a ball (his fourth fifty took 57 balls) there were few memorable or swashbuckling strokes. With the field spread wide and the bowling wider still, the West Indies were humbled into asking Pietersen to get himself out. He wasn't prepared to oblige - not, at least, until he had passed the milestone he had set himself. He was happy to milk singles and give the strike to Liam Plunkett, who consequently outscored Pietersen in their fifty partnership.

Pietersen's eyes were on the prize and he wasn't going to be distracted. It was an important milestone for him and the team. Up until Saturday, his highest score in Test cricket was 158 (three times he had been dismissed for that score), not the kind of career best that great batsmen can boast about. Great players get double hundreds and Pietersen wants to elevate himself into that category.

Moreover, double hundreds from batsmen signal a certain ruthlessness - an area in which England have been found wanting since their Ashes triumph of 2005. Indeed, in the last decade England's batsmen have rarely converted hundreds into doubles. Just five times in all have batsmen celebrated as Pietersen did on Saturay, with a double century each for Nasser Hussain, Robert Key, Marcus Trescothick, Paul Collingwood and Graham Thorpe. In the same time-frame, Australia have scored 14 double centuries.

Thereafter, Pietersen was happy to showcase his outrageous talent to the full, backing away and smearing through the off side, moving across his stumps and swatting through the leg side and carrying the ball over the ropes twice for his first sixes of the innings.

He was in a hurry now, as were England, who declared the moment Pietersen gave his wicket away. For the record his 226 came off 262 balls with 24 fours and two sixes, and he scored his runs just as he liked.

It is the speed with which he scores that has given England's line-up an extra dimension ever since he came into the Test team during the tumultuous summer of 2005. England's best middle-order player of the previous generation, Graham Thorpe (the man Pietersen replaced), was a fine player but more of a nudger and a nurdler. Opposition bowlers didn't lose too much sleep over England's middle order throughout the 1990s.

With Pietersen's arrival, and his desire to dominate bowlers from the start, all that has changed and England look more dangerous for it.

He was helped, it must be said, by a West Indies attack that was only a pale imitation of previous generations. At one point, the wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin was forced to stand up to Corey Collymore. If there was a moment which signalled how far the West Indies pace attack has fallen, it was then. Nor did Daren Ganga's tactics help. He delayed taking the new ball at the start for 10 overs, during which time England plundered 42 runs and the excellent Matt Prior was given time to settle in. Never have runs against the West Indies come so cheaply.

Unlike Pietersen, Michael Vaughan has never scored a double hundred in Test cricket, twice having fallen on 197. There was a huge score in the offing for him before he holed out on Friday, but on this occasion it wouldn't have troubled him at all. Last week I suggested that Vaughan had plenty to prove. I felt that after 18 months out of Test cricket, he needed to show two things: that he still has what it takes to score runs at Test level, and that his body could stand the rigours of the international treadmill. We needed to start talking about Vaughan in the present rather than the past tense, I said. Thankfully, we now can. His fragile body still has to prove it can last the course, and he now needs a good run of uninterrupted games, but as his cricketing motor purred into action on the first day it was clear that none of his ability or style had disappeared in the interim.

What an innings he played. It would be glib to say that it is the best Test innings he has played for a long time, since he hasn't played for a long time, but technically and temperamentally it was as good as anything he has delivered in England colours.

He thought it his best innings, which might strike some as odd given the quality of the attack. But it is too easy to lose sight of the mental turmoil that Vaughan would have gone through during his break from the game. The lonely days in the gym; the lonely nights wondering whether he would return or whether the gloomy prognosis of at least one surgeon would prove to be accurate. And then the build-up of pressure as the return drew closer.