Former England batsman Ian Bell was one of the most gracious stroke makers in his country’s line-up. Bell had a bulwark defence and an ability to gauge loose balls to hit them out of the park.
Bell even finished some critical games for the side and took them over the finish line. He has a tally of 13331 runs, which is the fourth-highest by an English cricketer.
The 39-years-old recently spoke at length about different shots and the batsmen who played the best to make his perfect batter. Talking about straight drive, Bell incessantly picked up Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar as the best proponent of that shot.
When asked about cover drive, the Coventry-born mentioned the name of Virat Kohli and Babar Azam but eventually chose himself for the shot.
Talking about cut shot, Bell selected his former England teammate Alastair Cook. He pointed out that Cook was hard to ball at and had an array of beautiful strokes.
“Cross-batted shots, pull shot, cut shot, he (Cook) was hard to bowl at,” Bell told ESPN Cricinfo.
Bell heaped praises on Ben Stokes for his reverse sweep, whereas he went with Jos Buttler for the scoop shot.
“He (Buttler) makes it so easy, like crazy. I have watched him doing practice at nets. Looks silly at times but he’s a genius,” Bell recollected.
Bell then nominated Joe Root as the batter with the best cover drive and preferred Rohit Sharma for his pull shot. Interestingly, on Rohit’s birthday, the International Cricket Council (ICC) had labelled him the ‘Master of Pull Shot’ in a compiled snippet.
“Watching him (Rohit) against Jofra Archer’s pace this winter. I know you could say it’s a pull shot or hook shot. But I have faced Archer before, that’s not an easy shot,” Bell stated.
Lastly, Bell opted for Kevin Pieterson for the best maximums down the ground.