The Hindu : Sport : Bell gets a call

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 16, 2005

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Bell gets a call

Ted Corbett

LONDON: Kevin Pietersen, England's destructive middle order batsman, will have to wait for his place in the Test team but David Graveney, the chairman of selectors, made it clear on Sunday that he was next in line.

"One of our problems at this moment is the depth of talent available to us," Graveney said as he named the 12-man squad for the first Test against Bangladesh at Lord's on May 26. "But every player in the squad knows that there is someone waiting to leap into his place.

Pietersen understands what he has to do; to get as many runs as possible to keep his name in front of us."

Pietersen was not at home when Graveney rang to give him the news but he had better keep his mobile phone fully charged for the next ten days because at any time he might get the call that says one of the top five batsmen is injured and that he is needed. His three centuries in seven one-day games in South Africa, his average of 139.50 and his century — the second fastest so far this summer — for Hampshire this week means he is a must-have batting star.

If Graham Thorpe, named at No. 5 in this side, has a recurrence of the back trouble that has plagued him or loses the form that has kept him in the Ashes fight for the last 12 years, Pietersen has shown he is ready to take his place.

Tremendous success

The up-and-coming spot goes to Ian Bell who scored 480 runs to break the record for the most runs scored in April while playing in four first class games for Warwickshire at the start of this cold and blustery summer. He puts his success down to good pitches and the support from his county colleagues but he is a tough competitor, aged 23, and perhaps the England No. 3 for the next ten years. He has already squeezed Robert Key, the heavyweight Kent champion, out of the side and his 70 in the final Test of last summer against West Indies showed he is far from troubled by nerves, a key consideration when facing the Australians.

Lewis as cover

England has also included the tall, studious-looking — it's the rimless glasses rather than a great academic background — fast bowler Jon Lewis into the 12, more as a protection against injury to Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard and Simon Jones, who has not played in the last two Glamorgan matches.

Lewis had a fine A team tour last winter and was added to the party for the one-day matches in South Africa but never managed to get on the field. He will certainly not replace Harmison who has 27 wickets, more than anyone else in the country this season, including Shane Warne.

Gone are the days

Central contracts and the philosophy of the coach Duncan Fletcher mean that the days of massive surprises are gone. Peter May, chairman of the selectors for seven years in the 1980s, once made seven alterations after a defeat by West Indies and commented: "You can't make wholesale changes, can you?" which made one wonder just how many adjustments he might have had in mind; but those times are gone.

Pietersen and Ed Joyce, the new kid on the block, will have to wait their turn but there is no doubt it will come. Joyce signed for Middlesex after playing against the county for the Irish team and is, in the opinion of good judges, a second David Gower. His qualification period comes to an end in July; just in time for the start of the Ashes and he is already among the runs this summer. Mark Butcher, a stalwart of many an Ashes battle, is getting fit again and, as Graveney says, "the question is who to leave out."

The squad: Michael Vaughan, (Yorkshire) captain, Marcus Trescothick (Somerset), Andrew Strauss, (Middlesex), Ian Bell (Warwickshire), Graham Thorpe (Surrey), Andrew Flintoff (Lancashire), Geraint Jones (Kent), Ashley Giles (Warwickshire), Simon Jones (Glamorgan), Matthew Hoggard (Yorkshire), Steve Harmison (Durham), Jon Lewis (Gloucestershire).

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