Bell ready for round two against Australia

Ian Bell says he is ready to bat at No.3 during the Ashes despite the fact that he struggled against Australia last year in England. Bell's last Test against Australia was at The Oval, where he made a pair, but he said in the lead-up to the first Test starting at Brisbane on Thursday he was thinking more about his recent form, which included 132 on the weekend against South Australia at Adelaide Oval.

"The Oval is a long time ago now, after that I've felt pretty confident in terms of the fact that in my last four Test matches I've scored three hundreds," Bell told The Age. "So the last match at The Oval wasn't really on my mind at all, coming to Australia.

"I think playing Pakistan with Danish Kaneria has helped. Obviously Shane Warne is the best in the world, but it has definitely helped playing quality spin bowling in the subcontinent and in England last year. Hopefully that experience will help me at least play better than I did in the last Ashes."

Bell said surviving the pace of Shaun Tait in the tour match had given him confidence but he was unsure how quick Australia's fast bowlers would be at Brisbane. "I don't really know too much about Brisbane," Bell said. "Obviously it will probably bounce a bit more than it did here [at Adelaide], but generally they are pretty good batting wickets out here."

He said England would be confident at the Gabba as each of the top six who will play in the first Test had scored at least one half-century so far on the tour.