Ian Bell wants England to refocus

England’s classy right-handed batsman Ian Bell has said that his team needs to refocus in order to retain its place at the top of the Test rankings. The Englishmen are currently 1-0 down in the ongoing Test competition against South Africa, and will have
to win the third and final game to level the series.

"We were so hungry to get to number one and that feeling of chasing number one is something that drove us really hard. It’s been a bit different being the team being chased by the other teams, a bit like the position India were in last year. Andy Flower
(team director) was keen to remind us that the hard work was only just starting when we got to number one. It’s like getting your first Test cap. You think you’ve made it but there is such a huge journey after that," Bell said

The English side is going through a controversy, stirred up by Kevin Pietersen recently. After announcing his retirement from limited-over cricket, the South Africa-born batsman hinted to quit Test cricket, but suddenly changed his stance. As a result of
a lot mess, the English selectors decided to drop Pietersen from the squad.

Bell does not want his side to lose concentration, admitting that England’s recent performances were not up to the mark. He stated ahead of the third encounter:

"Getting to number one was just part of it. We wanted as a group to stay there as long as possible. But we haven’t performed. Over the last 12 months we haven’t really been in the form of the last three years so it’s put us under pressure to stay there.
We have got to learn from these lessons if we want to keep being number one or if we want to get back there if we lose the spot."

He continued: "Things just started to turn at the end of the Headingley Test and hopefully we can take that momentum into Lord’s. We have always believed we can beat any team – certainly in England. We know we can beat South Africa."

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Posted by Rana Nasir Ghafoor on Aug 13 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