Bell was dropped from the squad after England's Test defeat against the West Indies in Jamaica three months ago. Ravi Bopara was quick to seize the spot with a few impressive scores; but Bell has been called back on the strength of his scoring 320 runs in seven first-class innings. Including Bell comes as a necessity for the second test, after England’s wobbly middle order exposed; with Pietersen falling for a duck and Collingwood for 8.

Sidebottom is returning to the squad after recovering from a surgery for chronic Achilles injury. His inclusion gives another seam option for the test at Chester-le-Street, which appears to be a very seamer friendly pitch.

"Both Bell and Sidebottom have been in form in the early part of the season and have been a part of the England set-up in recent years," National selector Geoff Miller is quoted saying. "Ryan Sidebottom has recovered from surgery and reports that he is now bowling pain-free.

"The inclusion of Bell and Sidebottom in the squad gives the selectors, the coach and the captain several options going into this game. Monty Panesar is unlucky but it was always highly unlikely that we would play two spinners at Chester-le-Street."

Panesar has been omitted only because the pitch does not favor spin. Meanwhile, West Indies’ captain Chris Gayle is confident that his team can bounce back after a very demoralizing defeat in the first test.

Gayle said, “We are very disappointed in the manner we lost the game in three days. We have ourselves to blame for that. We have to give credit to England because I thought they played some good cricket. We have to have the self-belief to go out there and get the job done. You just have to tough it out.”

However Gayle was happy with the 143 run partnership between Nash and Ramdin in the second innings. Devon Smith too did well making 41 in addition his 46 in the first innings. “We didn’t get off to the start we wanted and after that it was a disaster for us, although Ramdin and Nash and Devon Smith chipped in to take out the disgrace by showing some fight.”

Gayle believes that his team has no shortage of talent; but all they need is team effort and more focus.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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