Three is Bell's magic number

Ian Bell has admitted he is relishing the chance to establish himself as England's number three batsman.

The 24-year-old, looking forward to the first Ashes Test against Australia after the tourists drew their final warm-up match against South Australia on Sunday, insists he has the ability to keep the key role after scoring a fine 132 against the state side in Adelaide. He said: "It doesn't matter where you're batting in the order for England, you're expected to score runs.

"It's important for us as a unit to score as many runs as we can. I look forward to the challenge of batting at three and enjoy it. I've had a couple of goes at three and I've moved up and down the order a little bit, so it's another opportunity to show people I can play and bat number three. That's where I want to play for England."

Bell believes that England's early illness and injury concerns - which have seen opener Marcus Trescothick return home with stress and main strike bowler Steve Harmison suffer a side strain - have strengthened the players' resolve to succeed and retain the Ashes when they begin in Brisbane on Thursday.

"We've been through things like this before," he said. "When we were in India last year we had a lot of injuries and lost three or four players before the first Test match, but the great thing about this squad is when things do get tough, we do stick together and seem to get better performances out of each other.

"I think this is what's happened in the last two warm-up games (against New South Wales in Sydney and SA in Adelaide) and we've come out and played some good cricket."