Former England batter Ian Bell has now joined Sri Lanka as their new batting coach ahead of their 3-match Test series against the Three Lions set to commence from August 21. Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) CEO Ashley de Silva made the announcement on Tuesday as the Lankan Lions hope for a rare overseas series victory.
Bell represented England from 2004-2015 and played 118 Tests along with 161 ODIs and scored over 13,000 runs combining the 2 formats. He is only behind the likes of Joe Root, Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen when it comes to most runs for England in international cricket.
“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,” Ashley de Silva said.
The 42-year-old will start working with the Sri Lankan team on August 16 until the Test series.
