Former England cricketer Ian Bell appointed as Sri Lanka’s batting coach for England tour

Former England batter Ian Bell has been appointed as Sri Lanka’s batting coach for the three-match Test series between the two sides.

The former England batter will align with the Sri Lanka squad on August 16 and will stay with the team for the entire series concluding on September 6.

The three-match Test series will commence on August 21 at Manchester and subsequently played at Lords and Kennington Oval in London.

The series is a part of the World Test Championship (WTC) cycle 2023-2025. England are sixth on the WTC points table with 36.54 percentage points while Sri Lanka are fourth with 50 percentage points.

England cannot lose a single match if they have to stay in contention for the final while a whitewash would be tough for Sri Lanka to cope up with.

Bell’s appointment comes after the Sri Lanka cricket board decided to appoint an Englishman with good technical acumen. The CEO of Sri Lanka Cricket Ashley De Silva, in a statement, said Bell’s appointment will benefit Sri Lanka as he has a lot of experience of playing in England. “We appointed Ian to bring in a person with local knowledge to help the players with key insights on the conditions there. Ian has a lot of experience playing in England, and we believe his input will help our team in this crucial tour,” De Silva said.

Bell has the experience of playing in 118 Test matches and 161 ODIs for England from 2004 to 2015. Bell has scored 7,727 runs at an average of 42.69, with 22 centuries in Test matches.

The former England batter is no stranger to coaching roles. After his retirement, he served as an assistant coach of Hobart Hurricanes and Melbourne Renegades in the Big Bash League in Australia.

He was also a consultant batting coach for Derbyshire and is also an active member of England cricket’s grassroots programme.

Bell was also a part of the New Zealand’s coaching team for the series against England and Bangladesh last year.