Ian Bell turns heels as he joins Sri Lanka as batting coach for high-stakes England Test series

Sri Lanka National Cricket Team have appointed former England Test player Ian Bell as the batting coach for the upcoming Test series against England National Cricket Team. The two teams will be taking on each other in the three-match Test series, which will be part of the World Test Championship.

The first match of the Test series between the England National Cricket Team and the Sri Lanka National Cricket Team will played from August 21 in Manchester. The second game of the series will be taking place from August 29 while the last game of the series will be played at The Oval from September 6.

Ahead of the Test series against England, Sri Lanka made a massive inclusion in the team. England legend Ian Bell as the batting coach. This will be a huge boost for the batters of the team as no one better than Bell knows the conditions well in England and will be of great help to the team.

Ian Bell will be joining the Sri Lanka National Cricket Team on 16th August and will be there with the team till the end of the series. The governing body released an official statement about the development on Tuesday (13th August) and stated:

"Sri Lanka Cricket appointed former England batsman Ian Bell as the ‘Batting Coach’ of the national team for the ongoing tour. He will start working with the team on August 16th and remain until the conclusion of the three-test match series. The former England batsman has played in 118 test matches and scored 7727 runs at an average of 42.69."

Ian Bell, who has played 118 Tests and 161 ODIs for England, will have to play a major role for the Sri Lanka National Cricket Team in the series against England. The Island Nation batters have struggled of late a lot and the guidance from Bell would be a game-changer for them.

The Test series will be extremely important for both England as well as Sri Lanka in the context of the World Test Championship. The Ben Stokes-led side are placed sixth on the WTC points table with 36.54 percentage points while Sri Lanka are fourth with 50 percentage points.

England National Cricket Team are under serious pressure. To stay in contention for the World Test Championship, they need to win all three games. On the other hand, a whitewash for Sri Lanka would end their chances of qualifying for the final of the tournament.

We appointed Ian Bell to bring in a person with local knowledge to help the players with key insights on the conditions there - Ashley De Silva

Ashley De Silva, CEO, of Sri Lanka Cricket, talked about the appointment of Ian Bell for the upcoming England Tests. He said that they wanted to bring in a person with local knowledge. He also expressed confidence in former England Test batter to help the team. He elaborated:

"We appointed Ian to bring in a person with local knowledge to help the players with key insights on the conditions there. Ian has a lot of experience playing in England, and we believe his input will help our team in this crucial tour."

Sri Lanka will be entering the Test series on the back of a 2-0 ODI series win against India. It was their first series victory against India after 27 years.