LONDON: Ian Bell, who with his career-best 235 overtook Alastair Cook as the leading run-scorer in the present calendar year, on Saturday said that there is “healthy and constructive” competition among England batsmen and it is doing a world of good for the home team.
“There is competition with each other. If someone gets big, your mind also tells you get a bigger one. There is some competitiveness there but it’s healthy and constructive. We talk openly how to play bowlers, share ideas and prepare for a Test match,” stated Bell, who now has 950 runs from the year, overtaking Cook’s tally of 927 runs.
England presently also possess a quite a few batsmen with good number of centuries under their belt. Alastair Cook, Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Strauss all have 19 centuries each while Bell has 16, including this knock of 235 runs. “When I started, there were batsmen with 4-5 centuries. We all are stacking some numbers now and it’s great for English cricket,” Bell said.
Despite scoring his career-best score at The Oval, Bell has some mixed feelings about the venue.
“It’s a funny ground. I never made big here. I had a good debut and here I resurrected my career but I have mixed feelings. I have sat in the same seat in the dressing room and it has finally paid off.”
Bell, who is standing in for injured Jonathan Trott at the number three position, said he has some unfinished business to achieve at that particular slot. (PTI)
