Members of England's Barmy Army who did not travel to India for the seminal Test series win in the winter are forgiven if they saved their pennies for...

Monday was a bittersweet day for Ian Bell. Where the wretched Birmingham weather had contrived to dash any hopes he may have harboured of scoring the additional 24 runs required to ensure he became the first Warwickshire player to score a Test century at Edgbaston, the rather more soothing news that he had been restored to England's One Day International side as an opener offered some consolation.

Alastair Cook and Ian Bell restored order in a century stand which guided England to a five-wicket win over West Indies in the first Investec Test. ...

As England's second three day warm-up match of this two Test 'mini-tour' of Sri Lanka culminated in an unexpectedly exciting finale, thus averting one of those all too familiarly insipid draws so often associated with this beautiful isle, a sense of foreboding ahead of the upcoming five day stuff had still managed to lodge itself deep within my admittedly negative psyche.