Promote Ian Bell to No3 so we can get stuck into him earlier, says Ryan Harris

 
2 December 2013

Ryan Harris wants England to promote Ian Bell to No3 to give Australia a better chance of blunting last summer’s Ashes man of the series.

Either Bell or Joe Root is likely to move into the batting spot vacated by Jonathan Trott, who flew home with a stress-related illness after England’s First Test defeat in Brisbane.

Australia had a batting scare of their own today, when captain Michael Clarke limped away from practice with an apparent ankle problem, but he returned to complete the session and bat in the nets.

Harris would arguably be as big a loss as his skipper. There had been talk of resting the fast bowler with only three days’ break between this Test and the third match in Perth but the paceman is desperate to play here and is keen for an early crack at Bell, who scored three centuries against Australia last summer batting at No5.

“Hopefully it will be Bell in there early as it will give us a chance to get him out,” said Harris, who took 24 wickets in four Tests during the Ashes series in England earlier this year.

“I want him in there early. He did very well in that last series.

“He came in at times when they were under the pump and made big scores. It gives him more time to get in but gives us more time to get in and have a crack at him and get him out earlier. Whoever fills that spot is going to have to do a big job.

“I am leaning towards [thinking that] Root will bat there. He has batted at the top before in England. With Belly being so established and successful in the No5 spot, I will be surprised if they move him.”

While the atmosphere on the field is unlikely to be any more peaceful, Harris tried to assure the tourists that Australia would not use Trott’s departure as a verbal weapon.

Both sides have promised to continue sledging after the bad- tempered match at the Gabba, when Clarke was fined £1,800 for warning Jimmy Anderson to “get ready for a broken f*****g arm”.

Standard Sport revealed last week that, in the light of events in the First Test, match referee Jeff Crowe would arrange a special meeting with Clarke, England skipper Alastair Cook and coaches Darren Lehmann and Andy Flower, to remind them of their responsibilities and those of their respective teams. It seems, thankfully, that references to Trott’s illness will be off limits.

“I will be disappointed if anyone brings that up,” Harris revealed. “It is not a nice thing he is going through. All the boys who have commented on it have said we want Jonathan Trott back playing cricket.

“The whole world does and I know the Australian team does because he is one of their best players and we want to play against their best team.

“He has made a big decision to go home and I would love to see him back playing soon.

“I had some great battles with him over in England and I was looking forward to continuing that here.

“Hopefully, he gets back playing as soon as possible. The England teams need him but world cricket need him because he is a world-class player.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in