Sri Lanka national cricket team has appointed former England Test player Ian Bell as batting coach for the upcoming Test series against England national cricket team. The two teams will meet 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 be played from August 21 in Manchester. The second match of the series will be played from August 29, while the final match of the series will be played at The Oval from September 6.

Ahead of the Test series against England, Sri Lanka have made an important addition to the team. England legend Ian Bell will be the batting coach. This will be a big boost for the team’s batsmen as no one knows the conditions in England better than Bell and will be a big help to the team.

Ian Bell will join the Sri Lanka national cricket team on August 16 and will be with the team until the end of the series. The governing body released an official statement on the development on Tuesday (August 13) and stated:

“Sri Lanka Cricket has appointed former England batsman Ian Bell as the national team’s ‘Batting Coach’ for the ongoing tour. He will begin working with the team on August 16 and will remain there till the conclusion of the three-match Test 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 Test matches 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’s batsmen have been struggling a lot lately and Bell’s guidance would be a game-changer for them.

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

England’s national cricket team is under huge pressure. To remain in contention for the World Test Championship, it needs to win all three matches. On the other hand, a defeat to Sri Lanka would end its chances of qualifying for the final of the tournament.

We have appointed Ian Bell to bring in a person with local knowledge to assist players with key information about conditions there – Ashley De Silva

Sri Lanka Cricket CEO Ashley De Silva spoke 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 his confidence in the former England Test batsman to help the team. He explained:

““We chose Ian to bring in a person with local knowledge to help the players with key information about the conditions there. Ian has a lot of experience playing in England and we believe his input will help our team on this crucial tour.”

Sri Lanka will go into the Test series after winning the ODI series against India 2-0. It was their first series win against India after 27 years.