England’s leading ODI run scorer Ian Bell has announced his retirement from that format of the game.
In his column in free London newspaper Metro, the 33-year-old wrote “I’ve decided now is the right time to officially stand down from international one-day cricket and put all my focus and attention on my Test career.”
The Warwickshire batsman expressed his desire for the ODI side to be used to help develop young talent, saying, “stepping completely away from the one-day side of things, however, and allowing the young guys to make their mark on the team, will allow me to focus on my goals within the Test set-up and for me to get back to playing my best red-ball cricket.”
.@Ian_Bell said in his @Metro_Sport column that he’s retiring from ODI cricket. He’s our leading run-scorer #topman pic.twitter.com/7x3YSErClF
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) August 28, 2015
Coventry-born Bell made 5416 runs in 157 innings for England in ODI cricket, at an average of 37.87 and a strike-rate of 77.16.
His debut came in 2004, when his 115-ball 75 helped steer England to a five-wicket victory against Zimbabwe in Harare, and his final appearance saw him manage an unbeaten 52 from 56 deliveries against Afghanistan in England’s final World Cup game of the 2015 tournament.
Those scores were two of 35 fifties Bell made for England, and he also managed four centuries: 126* against India at the Rose Bowl in 2007, 126 at the same venue against the West Indies in 2012, an unbeaten 113 against India at Dharamsala in 2013 and 141 at Hobart against Australia earlier in 2015.
Since the World Cup, England have opted to open the batting with Alex Hales and Jason Roy, and with Moeen Ali, who opened in Australasia, coming back into the squad for the upcoming series against Australia, it seemed unlikely that Bell would have made the opening berth his own again.
“It’s been an honour and a privilege to represent the ODI side on so many occasions and I’m hugely proud to hold the run scoring record,” continued Bell, “but now is the time to celebrate the new flock of incredibly talented guys coming through and watch them develop into a team everyone can be proud of. Something I have no doubt they will do.”
Without explicitly mentioning the format, Bell implies as well that he will no longer be available for T20 international selection; he played eight times in that format, making 188 runs at an average of 26.53.
