Ashes 2013: England's big guns answer the call as Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen make a huge dent in Australia total Doubtless, there will still be some who doubt Bell's credentials as a top-ranker in the batting pantheon, even though he has already made two centuries in this series, and three in consecutive Ashes Tests before this. For he is a player who attracts strong judgments. He once had a reputation for being mentally soft, for piggybacking colleagues" hundreds earlier in an innings. And he has struggled to shed such perceptions. No matter that he has played some truly gutsy innings to go with the aestheticism, not least in saving the Cape Town Test on the 2009-10 tour to South Africa. His rearguard action in Auckland this winter was not too shabby, either. Yes, many of his runs have come in the calmer waters at No 5 and No 6 in the order, but Steve Waugh hardly used to rush to the front of the batting queue and no one called him soft. And Bell can push up, as he showed so brilliantly when making 159 at No 3 after an injury to Trott against India at Trent Bridge in 2011. Ashes series tend to define the cricketers on both sides, and they are remembered accordingly - goodness, Mike Gatting only won two Tests as England captain and they just happened to be against Australia in 1986-87. So even if there is to be no DVD, surely Bell has now done more than enough in Ashes cricket to be recalled with the very best. He has travelled far since a chastening Ashes debut eight years ago, when his finest match was actually here where he made 59 and 65. Otherwise he made scores of 6, 8, 6, 21, 3, 3 0 and 0 in that series. But that was a great Australian side. Since then Bell has been making his own rocky journey towards greatness. He could easily have been out for nought, though. Interestingly Mitchell Starc, the tall left-armer, immediately went around the wicket to him. Most right-handed batsmen would dread a left-arm seamer attacking them from over the wicket early on. But that is only when the ball is swinging, and the possibility of an lbw verdict has the umpire's index finger twitching. But the ball was not swinging and so Starc altered his line of attack. And he should have found reward. He beat Bell and the ball went through to wicketkeeper Brad Haddin, who appealed plaintively. Meanwhile, around Haddin nobody moved and nobody appealed. Haddin was alone in the audience laughing at a stand-up comedian. Now everyone was laughing at him, including skipper Michael Clarke at slip. Except they should not have been. Haddin was right. His instinct had been sound. He thought Bell had edged the ball. And he had. Technology proved as much later on. Observers and commentators often talk about batsmen being in form. I do not believe in that. Yes, there may be periods when one's technical competence dips below that required to score runs consistently, but that is different. And it does not happen half as often as is thought by some batsmen - especially the modern player who rushes to watch a video replay the moment he is dismissed. More usually batsmen are in luck. They go through periods where fortune is their faithful friend, and so they form a beautiful relationship called confidence. Remember that Bell was probably caught at Lord's in the last Test, but was reprieved by technology's limitations in that respect. Here he got lucky, and duly hit the next ball to the cover boundary for four. He was away. And how. His driving to that cover boundary off both front and back feet was exquisite, and he lofted Nathan Lyon over mid-off for a six that screamed ease. But he was eventually defeated by a beauty of a break-backer from Ryan Harris. With that Australia had hope, raised further by Pietersen's later departure. Nothing definitive yet then. The battle rages, except about Bell and Pietersen's status amongst the very best.