POSITIVES
Ian Bell has said that the England players shouldn’t think much about the defeat in the warm up match against India A. India A beat England by a profound margin of 53 runs in the first warm up match played at Palam A Ground. Bell was the only England batsman who faced the India A bowlers with confidence in that match. He played a fantastic knock of 91 runs off just 89 balls.
Talking to the reporters after the match, Bell said, “Yes, we didn’t manage to do well as a batting unit today, but, we shouldn’t be too much worried about it. It was only a warm up game and it has nothing to do with the result of the series. The important thing is to learn from the mistakes that we made today and should not repeat those mistakes in the ODI series.”
When asked about his brilliant knock, Bell said, “I tried to play the normal game and treated the ball according to its merit. I didn’t find the pitch hard to bat on. The bounce was nice and the ball was coming on to the bat. It was a very good track for the stroke players. I waited for the loose deliveries and whenever I got them, I made sure that I put them away.”
“I think the shot selection of few of our batsmen was not right. It was not such a huge total. It was a gettable target and we didn’t need to take unnecessary risk, but, we tried to be over aggressive and lost the wickets.”
When asked at which position he would like to bat in the upcoming ODI series, Bell said, “I like opening the batting, but, for the sake of the team, I am ready to bat at any position.”
Tags: England