Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood skulk around patiently

Ian Bell made 132 and Paul Collingwood 80 in England's drawn tour match against South Australia. Neither player was entirely certain of his Test place at the start of the tour, despite Bell averaging 47.66 and Collingwood 41.08. Now that Marcus Trescothick has returned home, both seem certain to start the first Test.

Marcus Trescothick is pretty much irreplaceable, but both these players deserve their place in the side, so 'every cloud' and all that. Both have a point to prove against Australia, however. During the last series, Ian Bell seemed to make a conscious decision to leave any of Shane Warne's deliveries that were straight and on the stumps. This was a bad ploy. Paul Collingwood played just the final Test, where he scored the finest 10 in living memory.

Along with Alastair Cook, Australia will look on these two as the weak links in England's batting line-up, but that might not be the case. Paul Collingwood is England's most adcaptable and determined batsman - one who has earned his place in the side in the truest sense. Ian Bell is arguably their classiest. In front of us is a copy of Indian magazine The Sportstar, dated April 6, 2002. Inside is an article about Ian Bell being the answer to England's problems at number three. It's been a long time coming, but he's still only 24 and his best years are unarguably ahead of him.

Ian Bell does a bit of something - no real news though

Every sports story has an 'angle'; a way to draw in the reader; a uniting theme for the piece. The angle for the first day of the fifth Ashes Test seems to be that Ian Bell hit a 50, but couldn't make a hundred, which is a pretty lame angle.

Presumably the amassed ranks of journalists had already penned their 'Bell redemptive hundred' stories and then had them dashed when he'd only reached 71. No-one else did much of anything and the Warne/McGrath/Langer stories will have to wait in the wings for nearer the end of the match.

Ian Bell was very composed

Wasn't he? A lot of England's batsmen seemed to have forgotten that it was a five-day match. Kevin Pietersen, we're looking at you. Matthew Prior, your name's on the list. Ian Bell took bloody ages to get going, but he wasn't bothered.

The West Indies bowled well and most of England's batsmen gave quite a few chances. Bell played one moronic shot and was livid with himself. Other than that, he was mighty careful.

Are we striking Ian Bell's name from the 'may get dropped when everyone's fit' list?

England v West Indies, third Test, day one at Old Trafford
England 296-7 (Ian Bell 77 not out)

Two things we love about Ian Bell

(1) He's 25

(2) Bat him at six and he scores a hundred

Ian Bell scored three hundreds in four Tests batting at six against Pakistan last year. Now he's done it again.

Day two of the first Test, England v West Indies at Lord's:
England: 553-5 (Alastair Cook 105, Paul Collingwood 111, Ian Bell 109no, Matt Prior 126no)

Ian Bell plays a pretty decent innings, but England lose so it doesn't really count

The point of the World Cup players to watch is surely that they have some sort of impact on the tournament. By this token, anything achieved in a losing cause is null and void.

Maybe it's different for Ian Bell. We're not quite sure for definite, but we think that we may have selected him as much to say 'look, he's really not that bad' as we did for any more grandiose reason.

People still think Ian Bell's rubbish, because he was when most people were paying attention to cricket - when England won the Ashes. He was only about fifteen then though and he'd wound up in this massively pressured environment having played about two international matches.

Since then he's been finding his feet. He's still only 24 and he's a decent international batsman who's worth his place in the England team. That's quite an achievement, but people are hard to win over.

He's not someone who blows the public away either. He's a sensible batsman. You have to have them, but Joe Public prefers the Flintoffs of this world, even though the Flintoffs of this world average ten runs less than Ian Bell.

Yesterday Ian Bell hit 77. There was a bit more derring-do than normal and it was against Australia. Maybe it was an important innings in his battle to win over the people, even if it wasn't an important innings in the context of this World Cup.

Ian Bell, England - World Cup player to watch

We're sick to death of seeing Kevin Pietersen's face everywhere. We're with him when he starts batting, but there's no need to highlight him before the World Cup. It's pretty obvious that he's England's most destructive one-day batsman. Here at King Cricket we're more subtle. Oh, okay - more obstinate.

Similarly, we think Monty Panesar could have a big World Cup, but again, he's somehow too glamourous. James Anderson's already made an impact at past World Cups, so he's out. Paul Nixon's worth listening to, but not watching. Andrew Flintoff's another who's too obvious.

So, Ian Bell then...

Well bear with us. England's number three has a reputation for clogging up the top-order with his 'staunch' batting style, but we know for a fact that Ian Bell has all of the shots - ALL OF THEM! At least he's got all of the shots from the old textbooks. The books before innovation became so painfully desirable.

Everyone's focussing on all the big-hitters and we'll admit, we're also guilty of that - picking Justin Kemp as one of our players to watch, for example. We've just got a sneaking suspicion that maybe international cricket's reaching saturation point with the rope-clearers.

There comes a point where skill is being sacrificed in favour of power and at some point that will start to tell. Not that these six-an-over behemoths are without skill. It's just that little extra strength and that little less finesse projected over the entire cricketing world.

At some point, there'll be a tricky wicket and low scores. Talent will out. Maybe Ian Bell won't win some crucial match for England, but we're picking him as an emblem of a certain brand of cricket.

Other players to watch during the World Cup