"Ian Bell Has The Best Cover Drive In The World": Matt Prior

Updated - 14 Dec 2022, 11:42 AM

Ian Bell
Ian Bell. Image-Getty

The gentleman’s game’s cover drive is the art of stroking the ball through the cover area. Some of the best batsmen in the game’s history, including Ian Bell, Viv Richards, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, and Babar Azam, are considered as the masters of the well-known shot.

In a one-off Question and Answer (Q&A) session recently On espncricinfo, Matt Prior was asked a fascinating question about the cover drive stroke.

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Ian Bell
Ian Bell Image-Twitter

Former England batsman Matt Prior lauded Ian Bell’s technique and stated the former skipper of the England cricket team possesses a great cover drive during a video session on espncricinfo.

“Ian Bell, Played a lot with the Bell, the Most Beautiful cover drive in cricket for many years,” Matt Prior said.

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During his playing days, Bell was known for his graceful stroke-making and was a master at timing the ball.

Ian Bell
Ian Bell[photo: Twitter]
The right-hander scored 7727 runs in 118 Test matches for England, including 22 centuries and a double hundred. His performances in the formats with limited overs, though, weren’t as reliable. Bell played 160 ODIs and just 8 T20Is, amassing a total of 5604 runs across both forms.

Ian Bell played his last international game in 2015:

Bell, who made his England debut in 2004, played for the team for 11 years, winning five of the seven Ashes series. He scored 562 runs at an average of 62.44 in the 2013 series, winning Player of the Series awards.

Ian Bell Image-Twitter
Ian Bell. (Credits: Twitter)

Bell also had success in ODI cricket. He was England’s top run-getter in the format with 5416 runs until former captain Eoin Morgan passed him in 2018. Bell continues to rank third among English players who have scored the most runs in a fifty-over format.

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