Posts tagged with ‘Ian Bell’

Ian Bell has just reached his fifty from the third ball after lunch. England are four wickets down, Strauss and Collingwood having fallen in the morning session. The Test is in the balance, a result is still possible even if a draw is the most likely outcome. What happens next?

All of the attention over the last 10 days has surrounded players either injured or badly out of form. Both sides are in a certain amount of disarray, but it promises to be the weather that holds the trump card at Edgbaston.

Had you considered that Ian Bell might actually score some runs against Australia when he replaces the “recently injured” Kevin Pietersen at Edgbaston?

On his achilles that is, before all you KP-haters out there get too excited. This means that KP will miss the rest of the Ashes. Frankly, we could see this coming with all the inevitability of a tax-hike. Four injections to limp through five days of cricket is too much.

As emotive as England’s late escape was yesterday, the team will be under no illusions – they were thoroughly outplayed. With the 2nd Test following just a few days behind, Strauss will need to regroup his team fast. Here are the areas that are of concern.

Journalism is increasingly becoming lazy, trotting out the same old stuff without mercy. Never more so than when it comes to England squad selection for the Ashes.

We thought that it was a new dawn. We felt that a definitive statement had been made about the future direction of the England team. We felt there would be no more passengers or shirkers. We were wrong.

Ravi Bopara has done in 1 innings what Ian Bell hasn’t managed in 31. He has scored a century batting at no. 3 for England.

These are my selections for the best performers in English cricket for the month of April, in all competitions.

Ian Bell needs to talk things over with Geoff Miller. He has issues with those mean selectors. He is hurt at his omission from the test squad, as if he has some divine right to be included.