Bell appointed as Sri Lanka batting coach for England Tests

Sri Lanka have appointed former England batter Ian Bell as their batting coach for the ongoing England tour.

Bell represented England from 2004-2015, playing 118 Tests and scoring 7727 runs in the format at an average of 42.69. He scored 22 hundreds and 46 fifties in his Test career.

Ashley De Silva, CEO of Sri Lanka Cricket, believed Bell could bring key insights into the local conditions.

"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 inputs will help our team in this crucial tour."

Bell will start working with the team on 16 August until the three-Test series concludes.

The series will be a part of the ICC World Test Championship where Sri Lanka are currently placed 4th in the standings while England are 6th.

Sri Lanka Squad: Dhananjaya de Silva (c), Dimuth Karunaratne, Nishan Madushka, Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis (vc), Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal, Kamindu Mendis, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Asitha Fernando, Vishwa Fernando, Kasun Rajitha, Lahiru Kumara, Nisala Tharaka, Prabath Jayasuriya, Ramesh Mendis, Jeffrey Vandersay, Milan Rathnayake