Bell admits pressure

12 July 2008

Ian Bell during his splendid innings at Lord's on day two

The pressure was mounting on Ian Bell before his 199 in the first Test at Lord’s - but he insists he was never worried about his place in the England team.

Bell made only 45 runs in four innings against New Zealand this summer, before a double-hundred for Warwickshire last week renewed his confidence.

The result was the lion’s share of the 593 for eight England posted on a rain-shortened day two against South Africa, who were seven without loss in reply by stumps last night.

“I’ve not necessarily felt under pressure for my place, but maybe under pressure because I knew I could score more runs than I did against New Zealand earlier in the summer,” Bell explained.

“You understand that there are some good players who are not playing for England at the moment in all departments, which means you have to keep churning the runs out to keep your place.
“I was desperate to do that - and that is probably another reason why I wanted to go back and play for Warwickshire, to get myself back in the best possible form to go out and perform in this series.”

The policy under coach Peter Moores - which did not pertain in the preceding Duncan Fletcher regime - is to allow England players to return to play for their counties if they so wish.

For Bell, it is an important factor.

“Obviously, it was a bonus for me to go and get that double-hundred for Warwickshire the other day,” he said.

“That did help me mentally. I was dying to go and play for Warwickshire, so it was nice that Moores was fully behind me.

“You can have nets, but it is scoring runs in the middle that counts.”

As for England’s prospects of converting an apparent match-controlling position into a rare Lord’s victory over the next three days, Bell is cautiously optimistic.

“We hope the conditions will allow us to swing the ball - because that is the way we are going to get 20 wickets,” he predicted.

“The key will be if we can get the ball swinging. That is one thing we do really well as a side.”