Ian Bell back in England squad for West Indies ODIs

Talented batsman Ian Bell has been recalled to England’s squad for the upcoming One Day International (ODI) series against West Indies. Bell regained his place in the setup following Kevin Pietersen’s recent retirement from the limited-over cricket.

Bell is the only player in the current 14-member squad who did not represent England in the recent clash with Pakistan, which was won by England 4-0.

The stylish batsman failed to do anything special in the Test series against Pakistan and as a result, the selectors ignored him for the ODI clash against the Green Shirts.

The 30-year-old has played in 108 One-day matches, scoring over 3000 runs at an average of 34.04 seconds. Bell played his last one-dayer against India in October last year.

"Kevin Pietersen’s recent decision to retire from one-day cricket means we now start looking at other options available to us as we prepare to defend our ICC World Twenty20 title and look towards next year’s ICC Champions Trophy and the 2015 ICC Cricket
World Cup," said Geoff Miller, England’s chairman of selectors.

"We are anticipating a very competitive NatWest Series against West Indies and are looking to continue to build on the progress we made in limited-overs cricket earlier this year against Pakistan."

England is full of confidence following an excellent 2-0 win in the Test series against West Indies. However, the Caribbean Kings will not be an easy opposition in the ODIs especially after Chris Gayle’s return to the setup.

The series will begin with the Rose Bowl encounter on Saturday. The two sides will again meet at The Oval and Headingley before playing a T20 international at Trent Bridge on June 24^th.

England ODI squad: Alastair Cook (captain), James Anderson, Jonny Bairstow, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Jade Dernbach, Steven Finn, Craig Kieswetter, Eoin Morgan, Samit Patel, Graeme Swann, Jonathan Trott.

England Twenty20 squad: Stuart Broad, Jonny Bairstow, Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Danny Briggs, Jos Buttler, Jade Dernbach, Steven Finn, Alex Hales, Craig Kieswetter, Eoin Morgan, Samit Patel, Graeme Swann.

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Posted by Rana Nasir Ghafoor on Jun 12 2012. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry