What we hear you cry, do you mean the same Ian Bell that averages only 25.68 against the Aussies in 13 tests and is yet to hit an Ashes hundred? No, we haven't been drinking from the same glass as Ijaz Butt, but yes we really do believe that Bell could be the ace up England's sleeve in the Ashes this winter.
Bell has certainly made a Bradmanesque return to action following his Beckhamesque metatarsal injury. After scoring a 50 in his first two games back for Warwickshire in the CB 40, he went on to score a hundred in the final championship game to help his county avert relegation and then topped it all off by scoring a wonderful century in the CB final at Lord's on Saturday. It was a sublime innings as Bell stroked the ball effortlessly around before a stirring assault at the end brought the trophy back to Edgbaston.
Bell has always had the talent but seemed to lack an appetite for the big stage and regularly failed to impress when the pressure was really on. After he was dropped following the debacle in Jamaica in 2009, it seemed that Bell was going to join the likes of Mark Ramprakash and Graeme Hick as immensely talented cricketers that failed to fulfil their promise at international level. But unlike when Ramps and Hick were being mismanaged by the England hierarchy, the selectors are now a more rational bunch. Bell was told to go back to county cricket and score some runs and not to worry as he was still firmly in their thoughts.
When he did come back last summer progress didn't initially seem to have been made. Bell got out after scoring an attractive fifty at Edgbaston and then followed that up with two failures at Headingley. The clamour to replace him was intense but the selectors decided that Ravi Bopara would be the fall guy and elevated Bell to the number three position for the crunch Oval test.
Here something seemed to change. Yes, Bell got out again when well set on 72. But this wasn't a bright and breezy 72. He was all at sea initially against Mitchell Johnson and showed courage and concentration to get through and build what proved to be a very important innings.
Next up in the 1st test of the South African series, Bell inexplicably left a straight one from Paul Harris in the first innings to be bowled for 5 and also failed in the second innings. Once again the clamour for Bell's removal reached a crescendo and the selectors came close to dropping him in favour of another bowler for Durban, and if better alternatives than Luke Wright had been around, then who knows? But Bell remained and it was here that the renaissance truly began with his 140 giving England the first innings lead they required to make South Africa capitulate to win the match. This wasn't enough for the doubters who cited the statistic that Bell had still never scored a test match century unless one of his colleagues had done so previously.
In the next test at Newlands, Bell again gave his wicket away in the 1st innings when well set on 48, but this time followed it up with a battling 78, when in tandem with Paul Collingwood he marshaled an England rearguard that saved the test. We were now seeing substance as well as style, and character as well as class.
Bell hasn't looked back since and has now hit 859 runs in the 11 tests since his recall at a healthy 53.68. Given the travails of the rest of the England batsmen minus Jonathan Trott against Pakistan, Bell's reputation has if anything been enhanced by his absence. He is likely to come in for Morgan for Brisbane and we are backing him to continue his rich vein of form. Now that he has allied mental toughness to his abundant talent, Bell is ready to show the Australians what all the fuss is about. As such we are putting our money where our mouth is and tipping Bell to emerge as England's highest run scorer over the winter. Remember, you read it here first.
Prophetic as Bell marches on.
Posted by: JackieL | Wednesday, August 03, 2011 at 02:09