Bell wants to come of age

After more than three years at the international level, Ian Bell hopes to return from England's tour of New Zealand with his reputation enhanced as more than just a promising batsman. With 33 Tests and 62 one-day internationals under his belt Bell is the fourth most experienced player in England's ODI squad and he believed that was enough to cement his place in both forms of the game, as well as command respect from international opposition.

"If you look at any of the best players in the world there's a maturity level that goes with them," Bell told Sporting Life. "There's something about them, the way they practice, the way they are as people, I think that's something I'm trying to move towards.

"It's not just about when you're in the nets and how you practice, there's a whole maturity thing that goes around them when they're in the dressing room. It's the way they control their own game, they don't rely on anyone else to be their batting coach for them."

Even before he made his Test and one-day international debuts in 2004, at the age of 22, Bell had been mentioned as a man to watch. But he hopes he can now be viewed as a senior player capable to winning matches for England. He cited Australia's captain as someone he could model himself on.

"If you look at Ricky Ponting, he controls everything himself about his own game and that's something I'm trying to do," he said. "He's a strong individual and that's something I'm searching for personally to become that mature person that people look at in a different light so they don't look at me as a good young player but look at me as a really tough cricketer."

Bell said a chat with Andy Flower, England's assistant coach, infused the belief that he could become a top-class international cricketer. To do that, according to Flower, he had to start acting like he wanted to belong at the top, and so Bell began playing a bigger role inside the dressing room.

"Certainly when we get into the team meetings and chat I try to make as big a contribution as possible because I am one of the senior players now in the one-day side," Bell said. "The onus is also on me batting at No. 3 to get big scores and get us off to good starts.

"When Andy was talking about that, it's not only how other people see me but also how I see myself. That's one thing that Peter Moores and Andy are quite keen for me to not see myself as a young player any more, but to see myself as a more experienced player in the team and a proper Test cricketer."