It is a philosophical Ian Bell who has turned up this week for Wednesday’s third Ashes Test, talking as if he has not a care in the world. Moved up to the No3 position on his home ground, amid a personal trough in form, that is some achievement, with the match appearing on paper to be a make-or-break moment for an international career that has both delighted and frustrated.
While there is the opportunity to become the first Warwickshire batsman to score a Test century at Edgbaston, Bell is all too aware that, despite having 22 hundreds in the bank, a recent return of 128 runs from 12 innings means another failure could result in him following the recently dispatched Gary Ballance out of the team.
Unlike the 25-year-old Yorkshire batsman, who has plenty of time to rekindle his career, Bell also knows that, at 33, any axe could be terminal. If that is a mountain of pressure to take into the middle encounter of a five-match Ashes series – and following the 37-over surrender at Lord’s – then Bell is not showing it, instead insisting his aim is simply to go out and enjoy himself.
“I’ve got a home Test match against Australia and if you can’t enjoy that you can’t enjoy any cricket,” Bell said. “Whatever happens I can look back with no regrets. I have given everything for the England shirt. To be about for 11 years is the best thing I have been a part of and hopefully there is more to come.
“I don’t worry about anything. If it doesn’t go all right this week and they move on in a different direction I’m not going to sit and worry. I have been lucky enough to have one of the best careers an England player can have. It’s a dream. All I wanted to do as a kid was to play 100 Tests and I have managed to achieve my goals and more. I can reflect on a great career if that was to be it.”
Such a relaxed state of mind is in part down to the experience built up since his Test debut against West Indies at The Oval in 2004. Of late, however, it has also been thanks to the company of the New Zealand captain, Brendon McCullum, on the golf course, who followed his side’s early summer tour by playing for Warwickshire’s Twenty20 equivalent, the Birmingham Bears.
“Brendon has been my psychologist this week and he’s been great,” Bell told BBC Radio 5 Live. “He goes out with the philosophy of enjoying every day you have. He said that these are the times of your life, the times to enjoy yourself and if you can’t enjoy a home Test match and look at it like that, then what is the point?”
The 2013 Ashes in England, where Bell registered three centuries in a low-scoring affair, was his last great series – he has averaged 28 in Test cricket since – but Bell believes his return to No3 for Edgbaston, the position where he scored a career-best 235 against India in 2011, when Jonathan Trott missed out through a shoulder injury, is the perfect opportunity to jolt his game back into life.
Joe Root follows him one place up the order to accommodate the in-form Jonny Bairstow at No5 and while waiting to get out to the crease has not been an issue for England’s middle order in 2015 – they have been at least three down for 52 runs or fewer eight times this year – the chance to face Australia’s attack early is appealing to him.
“I have never worried about where I bat,” Bell said. “It’s a challenge to bat at No3. In English conditions it will always swing and seam; you have to deal with that challenge. When you are out of form you want to get out there, not waiting around watching other people bat. I’d rather get on with it and get scrapping away.”
It is hard not to sense a reinvigoration is needed if his international career is to continue. Shorn of the vice-captaincy at the start of the summer and dropped from the one-day side after a World Cup in which he averaged 52 while somehow failing to make an impact, his status as a senior player has appeared diminished of late.
Edgbaston, the ground where he grew up, in his seventh Ashes series is a chance to address that.
