Bell eager to prove himself down under

Ian Bell does not have many happy memories from his last trip to Australia, but an increased maturity in his batting since last winter's tour of South Africa has led him to believe the upcoming Ashes series has arrived at the perfect time to prove himself down under.

"In the past I haven't performed as well as I should have against Australia, but I think I am an improved cricketer over the last 18 months or two years," he said. "Being out in South Africa last winter was a massive boost for me and it has continued on from there."

Bell averaged 33.10 in 10 innings on England's last Ashes trip, when Australia won 5-0, a slight improvement upon his career average of 25.68 in Tests against Australia, but believes his game has moved forward. "That's in the past - over the last two or three years I have matured as a player," he said. "This is coming at the right time for me."

"That Test series was a massive learning curve," he added. "It was disappointing, but a lot of the guys who were on it learnt a lot about how the best players in the world play and we were desperate to come back and improve after that series."

Improvement was evident on England's tour of South Africa in 2009-10, Bell's 313 runs at 44.71 in the Tests playing an important role in a drawn series. In four Tests against Bangladesh, home and away, Bell averaged 101.50 with two hundreds, but was then sidelined after breaking a bone in his foot while fielding in an ODI.

Bell, who missed the Test series against Pakistan after breaking his foot in the one-day series against Bangladesh, proved his fitness towards the end of the season for Warwickshire and England and is now focused on the three warm-up matches beginning with Western Australia on Friday.

"Hopefully I can do as much as I can in these warm-up games to keep pushing my case," he said. "I've enjoyed the first few days out here and feel like I have been hitting the ball well and hopefully I will continue with that in the warm-up games. I am going to keep working hard in the next three weeks, get myself in good form and as ready and fit as possible."