Bell determined to nail No. 3 spot

The England batsman, Ian Bell, is determined to make the No. 3 position his own once and for all. Bell was elevated to the spot for England's consolation win over South Africa at The Oval, but it is a position he has yet to cement: in 13 matches, he has yet to make a hundred and averages a below-par 33.96.

Yet with Kevin Pietersen leading England into bold new territory, Bell is acutely aware that his promotion in the order demands results sooner rather than later.

"It is now a time in my career where I should not see myself, or allow other people to see me, as a young player any more," he told PA at the launch of an urban cricket event in Birmingham. "A lot of the players when I first walked into the dressing room are no longer around and I have 43 Test caps, so it is time to step up and deliver.

"It looks like I might get an opportunity now at number three and it is up to me to take that opportunity. Certainly I have been up and down the order throughout my Test match career but more recently I have settled at five. That is where I have put in my best performances but as a player you always want to test yourself and be as good as you possibly can be.

"You look at the best players in the world and a lot of them bat at number three or number four," he said. "People might say that batting at number five is easier than three but you want to test yourself as much as you can and batting at number three you do that.

"You could be in after the first ball or three hours later. That challenges your skills as a batsman and that is what I want to face up to."

The coveted No. 3 position is one England have struggled with since Mark Butcher occupied it so successfully. Michael Vaughan and Andrew Strauss were both tried - six of Vaughan's Test hundreds were made there - but no one has been able to match Butcher's consistency (2796 runs at 38.30). It is that lack of consistency which blight's Bell statistics, too: he has nine fifties at the No. 3 spot and looked to be England's best player during the winter series against Sri Lanka, but failed to convert them into dominant hundreds.

"I know I can do it, I have done it a little bit in the Ashes, but I have to start converting those 50s into hundreds like I did at Lord's against South Africa," he said. "If I can do it more consistently I will know I am going in the right direction, and hopefully the best years of my batting are still ahead of me. Being 26 now I have got experience behind me and I know a bit more about Test cricket."

Like Bell, England are desperately seeking consistency. With just nine Tests until the Ashes next year, there is little time for Pietersen to shape his side ahead of the Australians' arrival, but Bell remains confident that the talent England possess will see them through.

"Anyone that looks into the dressing room and sees the talent inside it would believe it is possible we can win the Ashes. There is a lot of ability," he said. "Like KP said, if we play like we did at The Oval, and at times this summer, we can do it. The important thing in the lead-up to 2005 was that we were winning Test matches regularly, it became a habit, and we played consistent cricket.

"We desperately need that consistency back in our game. As we showed against South Africa, we scored 600 in the first Test and then 200 in the next. When you play the best team in the world you cannot afford that kind of inconsistency in your game."