Cricket: Bell Fits the Bill for Middle England

The Ashes series is 69 days away but first there is a series against Bangladesh. Although no one is under any illusion as to the outcome, these matches have an importance that should not be underestimated.

Years ago, before central contracts, two divisions and four-day games, there were Test trials, where the selectors pitted two teams against one another and let them fight it out. The matches against Bangladesh, the first of which begins at Lord's on Thursday week, are as close to a trial as it gets, during which England will finalise their Ashes team. They cannot afford to turn up on July 21 with any debutants.

Of course, with a dozen players on central contracts, selection is less volatile than it was, something reinforced by the addition of a further 13 players to form a 25-man development squad. The nucleus of the team, to be selected today and announced on Sunday, will be no different from that which last took the field for England in Centurion back in January.

Several things have happened in the interim, though, to give the selectors more food for thought than they are used to. Injuries have muddied the waters. Mark Butcher, who missed the latter part of the South African tour with a wrist injury, has yet to start playing again; Andrew Flintoff has not reached full all-round cricket fitness after his ankle operation towards the end of the winter; and Graham Thorpe's dicky back is playing him up.

There was better news of Ashley Giles's hip yesterday, when a scan revealed nothing untoward, but there is also the form of James Anderson, who had a wretched winter on the periphery and has yet to rediscover the joy of bowling unencumbered by theory or advice.

The most pertinent is Flintoff, who has been galumphing around in fine fettle and needs restraining more than encouraging. The news that he is bowling, if not quite in anger then with a bit of a grump on, is reassuring but England would have him simply to bat and stand at second slip. Butcher is now out of the equation and may never return to it while Anderson must be left with Lancashire for the season and not bothered. Thorpe has almost a fortnight to recover.

The real conundrum comes with the choice of middle order where, alongside the captain Michael Vaughan, Thorpe and Flintoff, Rob Key is the man in possession but under pressure from Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen. Key's performances for England last summer, on the back of a wonderful season for Kent, projected him rather than Bell on to the South Africa tour but many felt that the Warwickshire batsman looked the more compact, assured player.

Bell has exploded from the blocks this summer whereas Key has one big century to his name. The emergence of Pietersen in such spectacular fashion during the one-day series in South Africa has further complicated matters. Temperamentally he appears rock solid - the hostile reception he got in his native South Africa must have been daunting - even if a collection of noughts here with his new county Hampshire shows early vulnerability, perhaps exacerbated by a desire to get the board moving.

But he exudes a presence at the crease and a more orthodox technique that shows his one-day legside strategy to be just that. If he can learn discretion outside off-stump, a region in which he will be tested relentlessly, he will be a fine player.

However, if Key had a modest series in South Africa having replaced the injured Butcher, and still finds some daft ways to get out having done the hard graft, then Bell does not deserve to be usurped after his Test debut 70 at The Oval last year which was characterised by his efficiency; he has the priceless ability to score unobtrusively.

A rational decision would be to pencil in Bell for the final XI but with Pietersen as an addition to the squad, with the pair of them given the bonus of a summer contract. It would be tough on Key but, as the Australians will not be slow to point out, it is a tough business with no room for sentiment.

Should Flintoff not be bowling, and any reaction in his ankle will be monitored closely, the attack becomes unbalanced. There is a feeling, though, that England may not be particularly encumbered by being a bowler shy, with Bell capable anyway of bowling fill-in overs if necessary. So a pace attack of Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard and, if fit, Simon Jones, allied to Giles's reliable left-arm spin, should prove more than a handful for Bangladesh. Jon Lewis of Gloucestershire could be added to the squad as seam bowling cover.

Probable Squad:

Michael Vaughan (capt) Yorkshire

Marcus Trescothick Somerset

Andrew Strauss Middlesex

Graham Thorpe Surrey

Ian Bell Warwicks

Andrew Flintoff Lancashire

Geraint Jones (wkt) Kent

Ashley Giles Warwicks

Matthew Hoggard Yorkshire

Simon Jones Glamorgan

Steve Harmison Durham

Kevin Pietersen Hampshire

Jon Lewis Gloucs