Edgbaston Legends - Ian Bell

Edgbaston Legends - Ian Bell

Ian Bell is one of only three current England cricketers to have played in three Ashes-winning campaigns

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Ian Bell has come to be one of England's most fluent and attractive players although it has been quite a journey to get there. He was always marked down as something special as he scored runs and won honours aplenty as a junior player, representing the Warwickshire Cricket Board as a 17-year-old and then making his Warwickshire debut as a 19-year-old in 2001.

Three years later and he was making his first England start, making an assured 70 as a replacement for Graham Thorpe against the West Indies.

Consistently churning out the runs for the Bears meant he would stay in England’s plans and by the next summer he was in the side for good, scoring an unbeaten 65 and then an unbeaten 162 against Bangladesh. He struggled in the main against Australia later in the summer, but contributed to the historic 2-1 series with a couple of fighting half-centuries at Old Trafford putting England in a strong position.

He enjoyed a fine run of form against Pakistan in 2006 and struck 199 against South Africa in 2008 but his game seemed to reach new heights following the South Africa tour of 2009/10, when he helped England save the Cape Town Test with a gutsy innings of 78 and scored 140 in England’s big win in Durban.

He played his part in the Ashes win in Australia that followed, scoring 329 runs and registering a maiden Ashes century along the way.

His ability to score runs all round the wicket and quickly has seen him used in many different positions in the One-Day and Twenty20 International teams, and in over 100 limited overs game for his country, although he has scored heavily, he has only once passed three figures – against India in 2007.