Judgment day for the Shermanator

Ian Bell has replaced the injured Kevin Pietersen for the third Ashes Test in Edgbaston and that will give Australia the edge, according to Shane Warne in the Times.

Bell’s return will hopefully be greeted with “welcome back, Shermanator”, the nickname I gave him in 2006. I remember watching American Pie in the team hotel with Michael Clarke on the fourth evening of the Adelaide Test and when the dorky ginger kid appeared we both started laughing because it reminded us of Bell.

At Test match time Edgbaston it is transformed into one of the most vibrant stadiums in the world, a cockpit of emotion, even jingoism, which may explain why England have a better home record there than anywhere else, with 22 victories and only eight defeats in 43 Tests, writes Pat Gibson in the same paper.

In going back to Bell so soon after patience ran out with him the selectors are effectively saying that the substrata of batting in this country is not deemed to be of international quality, writes Mike Selvey in the Guardian.