Why Ian Bell Cannot Be Relied On For The Pakistan Tour

There has been much statistical analysis of the recent Ashes series but so far no-one has examined the number of runs scored for each English partnership. That is until now!

Wicket	Total Runs	Highest Partnership	Average
1	538	112	53.8
2	362	137	36.2
3	309	127	30.9
4	208	67	20.8
5	418	143	41.8
6	384	177	38.4
7	233	87	25.89
8	189	109	23.63
9	106	27	13.25
10	186	51	23.25

This highlights strengths in Englands batting. The tail clearly wagged on many occasions and the opening partnership looks very strong. However, there is an obvious weakness in the middle order. Average partnerships of 30.9 and 20.8 are disappointing and need to be improved.

Pietersen was the find of the summer, but he is a nervous starter. To complement his talents we need a steady batsmen at number 4. Bell performed this task brilliantly at Old Trafford, scoring 59 and 65 but more importantly sharing in two partnerships of 127 for the third wicket in both innings. However, Bell's exploits at Old Trafford contrasts sharply with his performance in the other four Tests. He averaged 17.1 overall but only 5.87 in the four Tests at Lords, Edgbaston, Trent Bridge and the Oval. The average partnership for the third wicket also drops from 30.9 overall to an abysmal 6.88 for the other four Tests. In five times out of the eight partnerships in question it was Bell's wicket which ended the partnership. In two of the other three occasions, Lords 1st innings and Trent Bridge 2nd innings, Bell was out next in partnerships of only 1 and 0 respectively. The only other instance was at Edbaston in the second innings, where Hoggard was used as nightwatchman and Bell shared partnerships of 2, 41 and 3 , for the 4th, 5th and 6th wicket, before being out for 21.

I greatly admire the recent English selection policy of showing faith with players who struggle early on in their test careers. This has been coupled with the no less admirable policy of refusing to select players who, after being given a fair chance, have clearly shown they are not good enough for Test cricket. Argubly Bell would already have been blacklisted had England lost the Ashes series, which we surely would have done if any other batsmen had peformed as poorly as he did. One Old Trafford swallow does not make a summer and with Simon Jones being declared unfit for the Pakistan tour the selectors have been given another chance to bring in an additional batsman to cover for Bell and give a more balanced look to the squad. I personally think that Robert Key deserves another chance.