Ian Bell is the one England player remaining from the heady summer of 2005, but that great series is not all fond memories for him
David Hopps29-Jun-2015Some Ashes cricketers will be remembered for the passions they roused, some for their stirring deeds, the records they broke, the conflicts they caused. Ian Bell has quieter ambitions for the far-off day when he finally calls time on his career: he will become nostalgic over the amount of people who have said they like watching him bat.Recognition of Bell’s achievement can easily be lost, especially in a summer that has so far resounded to banks of power hitters strutting their stuff against middling attacks on flat pitches. But the Ashes series will have time for delicacy and England will hope that Bell, Man of the Series when they won 3-0 in England two years ago, will once again be at the forefront.Asking Bell how he would best like to remembered might seem premature – even when he is finally forced to concede his England place he has ambitions to skipper Warwickshire for a couple of seasons to thank them for his grounding. But he does reflect that, at 33, about to embark upon his seventh Ashes series, and now that Jonathan Trott and Matt Prior have moved on, he is the oldest player in the England side.”Not everybody has caught on to the fact,” he said. “I try and have a little bit of stubble to remind everybody of the fact. It’s 11 years that I have been playing for England. There are not a lot of Ashes experiences I haven’t gone through. It’s come upon me quietly. I suppose that is just me as a person – quietly going about my business. Hopefully there could still be plenty to come.”For people to say that genuinely they love to watch me bat means a lot. Sometimes I get criticised for making things look easy because it looks like I have got out carelessly. It took me a while to learn to play not just the nice knocks but the tough ones as well.”Most Ashes wins for England since 1950
Ian Botham 7 series, 5 wins
Kevin Pietersen 6 series, 4 wins
Bob Willis 6 series, 4 wins
Ian Bell 6 series, 4 wins
John Emburey 6 series, 4 wins
David Gower 7 series, 4 wins
Geoff Boycott 8 series, 4 wins
In good England times, Bell’s sleek, serene strokeplay has been the stuff of artistry. Even when England have been struggling, his silken drives and cuts, with carefully-set fields avoided through sleight of hand, have had the capacity to sooth like a waterfall on a troubled mind.Were England to cast off their reputation as underdogs and reclaim the Ashes this summer, he would become a five-time Ashes winner and that accolade has only been bestowed upon Ian Botham among England players since the end of World War 2. Seven Australians have surpassed that, of course, which just goes to show that you don’t just have to be a good player, you have to be in a very good side.Which brings us back to 2005, Bell’s first Ashes series, in which Australia afforded him about as much respect as Prince George gave Pitt The Younger in . On a personal level, it was a traumatic time, no more so than when he made a pair in the final Test at The Oval with the Ashes at stake.”It was probably my lowest Ashes point,” he said, “although I suppose the best thing is it was against two of the best bowlers of all time – Warne first innings, McGrath second – so I can’t argue with that.”The 2005 Ashes was one of my first big series. You are trying to take everything in, to learn on your feet, to put different pieces of information into your own game. That series was a massive eye opener to me.”Having always been cited as someone who would be a Test player from an early age, having played against West Indies and Bangladesh and do well, and all of a sudden to come into an Ashes series, whether a little bit naïve I don’t know, but all of a suddenly realising where the bar was set by a lot of people: Warne, McGrath, watching Ponting bat. It gave me an idea at 23 that if I wanted to be around in this game for 10 years the level I needed to take my game to.Ian Bell shares a joke with Andrew Flintoff, England’s 2005 inspiration, at a TwelfthMan event•ECB”It was not just about technique, it was more about the demands mentally and physically. More for me, it was about understanding what I needed to do in pressure situations; how to get through them. You get to international cricket and think, ‘oh, I’m here now’, but that series was a reminder that you are so far away from where you want to get to.”Bell was chatting before a speaking engagement at Old Trafford for Twelfth Man, the official membership group for England cricket. He looked energetic, relishing the challenge ahead. He spoke more than once about Ashes series past that had sprung into his mind as he drove up the M6. He will think about little else for the next two months or so.”The training camp in Spain signals that it is now the time to concentrate on the Ashes. Everybody is now itching for the Ashes to turn up: a period of two or three months scrapping as hard as we can as a group to try to achieve something special.”Relaxing in the next room, and fulfilling a role on his home turf as an Ashes ambassador, was Andrew Flintoff. Whenever 2005 is mentioned, Flintoff’s hulking presence seems to grow.Bell’s golden Ashes summer
1st Test, Trent Bridge
A rare heatwave helped England produce the dry pitches on which they wanted to contend the Ashes, but Australia took a first-innings lead of 65 thanks to Ashton Agar’s heroics at No. 11 then reduced England to 11 for 2. Bell romped ahead against the second new ball, encouraging to compare him to Mahela Jayawardene as he deftly milked the third man region in an innings of “exquisite denial”. The pitch was parched and so were the mouths of the spectators, but Bell exuded calm, subtle back cuts and glides to the fore on a slow, low surface.
2nd Test, Lord’s
It was a sweltering summer’s day with the prospect that Lord’s would stage one of the hottest Tests – perhaps the hottest – in its history. And in this scorching atmosphere, Bell produced his third Ashes hundred in succession, an innings of great subtlety in front of the Queen after Ryan Harris had barged in to leave England at a parlous 28 for 3. Once again, Bell scored heavily square of the wicket in a subtle innings which made the gentlest of indentations on the drowsiest of days.
4th Test, Chester-le-Street
While England again batted with nervous fragility, Bell combined the sweet timing for which his batting has always been characterised with the reliability and steel for which it has not. England were struggling grimly in the second innings, but Bell batted with an ease that transcended the situation, the pitch and the bowling. His cover driving and late cutting, in particular, were things of beauty but his shot selection was also impeccable.
“We are going to have to have in the team someone like Fred who had the series of his life,” Bell said. “Everything he did in that series he dragged that team with him. Australia would be favourites against any team in the world at the moment. But having seen some clips of the 2005 stuff there are a lot of similarities between where that team was at the time and where the Australian team were. England were massive underdogs in 2005 and some special things happened. Trent Bridge, Edgbaston and Old Trafford were three of the best games I have ever played in – and that was right at the start of my career.”Duncan Fletcher, as a coach, was unbelievable at seeing faults in opposition players. He was very much part of the plan to come round the wicket to Adam Gilchrist, making him play with a straight bat, and people like Fred could deliver those kind of skills. I remember listening as a young player at 22 to the sort of things he could see that maybe other people couldn’t.”Observing Flintoff in that series, or Alastair Cook when he made 766 runs in Australia six years later, had a lasting effect on Bell. “You just want to be a Man of the Series in the Ashes. You want to look back and say, ‘yeah, I made a difference, I was part of a team, but I was man of the series’.”That dream was answered in 2013 when he made three centuries in the series. Only David Gower and Maurice Leyland had ever achieved that for England. He had entered the series in unimpressive form, but ended it with his ability memorably restated. His scores, a century in Antigua apart, have once again dipped in the last two series against West Indies and New Zealand: England will hope for an encore.Nobody had back-cut more elegantly for a generation or more frequently than Bell did in successive Tests at Trent Bridge and Lord’s and then, as Australia’s bowlers tried to cut his supply line, he buckled down for a hundred as resilient as any of the 22 he has produced at Chester-le-Street to secure the Ashes. 2013 should rightly be known as Bell’s Ashes summer, but he tends to escape attention like that.What of that back cut? How did the shot that not just shaped but adorned the summer evolve? Was it plotted months in advance, honed by endless dog-thrower drills from Graham Gooch, or was it a more organic process, a shot that because of its success just became second nature?”It just sort of happened,” he said. “It was a shot I suppose I have always had – although not as much as in that series. I don’t know if it was because of the lines and the lengths Australia bowled at me in that series. I worked really hard with Goochie in terms of playing cross-batted shots leading into that series, not necessarily the late cut.”When you start to get into form, and into that place where your footwork is good, you are picking length really quickly. At that time I was in a great place batting wise and I was picking length fast and that would allow me to put the ball into unguarded areas. If they have packed in front of square then I am going to try to hit it behind square.”As the series went on the fields definitely started to change – third man went down – and it will be really interesting to see what happens this series. The difficult thing in international cricket is when you are around a long time there is a lot of footage on strengths and weaknesses. Gradually people have bowled a lot straighter at me, so I haven’t been able to play that shot so much.”You have to adapt all the time. It will be really interesting to see what plans they have for me this time. The back-cut was one shot that worked for me in 2013. This time it might be something completely different. There is no right way to do it in Test cricket: you just have to find a way.”