Ashes 2013: Ian Bell warns that England must not write off Australia They put out a really strong Australia A side and gave those guys some good experiences against English cricketers and they will be training as hard as ever to get it right over here. Bell has been given a month off to recover from a busy winter and to spend a little time getting to know his son, Joseph, who was born during November's Test series in India. By the time he makes his seasonal debut for Warwickshire against Sussex at Hove on May 1, Bell hopes that the weather will have warmed up considerably after he reported for the county's photocall at Edgbaston on Thursday with remnants of the snow that ground staff cleared from the playing area last week still evident. The Sussex match will be Bell's first since he joined Matt Prior in a match-saving alliance against New Zealand in Auckland two weeks ago, where his 75 in almost six hours helped to draw the series and ended a run of low scores. "Early on in my career I was guilty of getting myself out a few times whereas this tour was frustrating on that front but it was nice to finish on a real high," Bell said. It wasn't the best Ian Bell innings to watch but it was one that the team needed and something that, as a group, we are going to need this summer. When you are playing 10 Tests against Australia there are going to be times when we are really going to have to scrap for a draw or certain situations where we are going to have to fight really hard to get through that day. Before they can start thinking about the Ashes England have two Tests against New Zealand who pushed them so close in the recent series. "New Zealand have had a few problems off the field but they are a good team to play against, they are talented, honest and hard-working cricketers," Jonathan Trott, Bell's England and Warwickshire team-mate, said. I played out there [before and] knew a few of them so I'm not surprised how well they did against us. I also know their coach Mike Hesson pretty well, he was at Otago when I played there. We played some good cricket in the one-dayers to beat them so we knew the Tests would be tough. We came unstuck in the first and third Tests; having bad first days generally puts you on the back foot for the other four days. It's important we do start well come the Tests against New Zealand and Australia.