Why Was Ian Bell Under Pressure in The First Place?

Ian Bell has just escaped talk of himself being dropped for the returning Andrew Flintoff with a quite sublime 199 against an under performing, but very good South African bowling attack. The question is however, except the poor series against New Zealand, why is he ALWAYS under so much pressure?

It is plain to see his is immensely talented with most of the shots in the book and the timing that many do not possess but the main consensus is that he buckles under pressure and gives his wicket away when seemingly well set.

The first point, I have never felt is true. His hostile debut against a fiery West Indian attack, who had just spotted a potentially intimidated boy, showed his concentration as he came out of that with a fine 70. In the 2005 Ashes (his worst series where the pressure started) he was getting out to very, very good bowlers the likes of whom he had not faced before. The determination he showed in the 3rd test at Old Trafford, when the Aussies had started to get onto him was remarkable in my eyes, and even though he had been bullied out of form he came out with two well deserved half-centuries. He's stayed in the team for a few years throughout all the pressure on him because he has always come out with a big performance when he needs it most (Pakistan 2005, New Zealand (away) 2008, South Africa 2008) and throughout the disastrous Ashes 2006/07 he only actually had one bad match. All the innings I saw involved him coming in to consolidate a collapse and he always showed grit to overcome the Australian onslaught; he ended up with a fair few good, if not brilliant, scores.

The point about him throwing his wicket away is a trickier one. The first piece of evidence suggesting that this isn't true is that he has 8 centuries in 40 matches which is a good return. The next point (more valid for ODIs) is that he has to have a high percentage of dismissals in the 20/30s because he rarely gets out before that. Perhaps he isn't actually 'in', and properly comfortable, until a lot later than some batsmen who can feel 'in' after a few boundaries. Perhaps his mind-set is to get lots of runs and therefore a score of 20 is only a slight proportion of what he wants overall so doesn't constitute a completed start for him. It could be that people thing he looks in when he isn't because of his fantastically good looking technique which may hide the nerves which all batsmen have at the start of an innings.

To conclude, I don't think he is fully matured yet in terms of batting; to start his career he seemed to have a new battle every single delivery, then he felt he was good enough to play international sport so started to show his class in terms of his strokeplay. Next, and I hope this will come very soon as he keeps giving glimpses, he will start to show his pedigree with more consistent large scores and I say let him continue for it will only be a matter of time and it should have been noticed by the media that he is still developing. After all, he is still only 26 and to get rid of someone that age with the experience he has already gained would be a complete waste of the time given to him so far.