Bell makes some noise,but will the door open?

It must be hard to be in Bells shoes at the moment.

Long before the England team ended their pre-training huddle,Ian Bell broke out of the pack and rushed towards his kit bag. With helmet in place,the diminutive English batsman strode into the vacant nets arena for a round of shadow practice. Facing up to an imaginary bowler,Bell drove the ball through the covers,flicked to midwicket,before playing a series of sweeps. All through his routine,Bell had a few serious frownlines on his head.

It must be hard to be in Bells shoes at the moment. The 29-year old purebred Warwickshireman is probably the best player of spin in the current England squad. But with two South Africans Kevin Pietersen and Jonathan Trott occupying his role with far superior averages in one-day cricket,the England team management have been extremely resistant to giving Bell a go on tracks that will suit his style of play.

Although the more inexperienced of the three,Trott with a breathtaking average of 50.19 in ODIs is currently the highest run-getter in 2011 with 1173 runs in the format. Needless to say,the No.3 spot in Three Lions team is all but sealed. On the other hand,Kevin Pietersen has long been out of form in the shorter-versions,but its hard to leave a man of KPs experience and aura on the bench.

With the England think tank hell bent on picking only two out of these three in the playing eleven every other batting position in the side is either too high or two low for these stabilisers,Bell has been made to wait for his turn.

Its a tough call,because we feel Trott and KP deserve the chances they are getting, Alastair Cook said earlier in the week. Ian is of course an option and he presents a rather powerful case for himself,considering what he did against the Indians in the Test series.

Thorn in flesh

A big chunk of the credit for toppling Indias crown in Test cricket was due to two massive centuries 159 and 235 scored by Bell. He also proved to be a thorn in Indias flesh,facing 129.1 overs all by himself. So couldnt he be the anchor that England build a good ODI score on the foundations of his technique? As Bell showed during the nets session against real bowlers on Wednesday,he could be a lot more.

Forcing everyone present at the training arena to duck for cover,Bell vented out some of his frustration with out-of-character blistering hits. None was spared the heat,as projectiles thudded into the metal sightscreen in the foreground,creating permanent dents as a reminder to his destructive capabilities. And as Bell exited the central strip after one last lusty hit,he managed to do what he couldnt so far in this series: cause a wedge between the two incoming batsmen KP and Trott.