Strauss: Bell can be next renaissance man

Warwickshire batsman Bell will replace the injured Kevin Pietersen in England's middle order for the third npower Ashes Test, almost six months after being axed.

"When you've been struggling for runs your mindset gets quite negative and you are worried about losing your place in the side," said Strauss. "When you are left out, you realise that life goes on and if you get another opportunity it's a massive positive and something that you can't really lose on. That as a mindset is a pretty good place to be."

He added: "Ian's done a lot of work. We sent him away and it was a pretty bitter pill to swallow. He's done a lot of fitness work, scored a lot of runs for Warwickshire, he's done everything we've asked of him and he's had to dig pretty deep to do that. So I think he's going to be a better batsman for that experience.

"A player of the calibre of Ian Bell coming in is very re-assuring. He's a proven Test performer, he's played in the Ashes before and he's done that spell out of the side that a lot of us have been through.

"It's not much fun when you are out of it but it makes you very, very hungry when you come back in."

Filling in for Pietersen does not mean trying to copy England's premier batsman, however.

When fit, Pietersen's unorthodox methods invariably result in him scoring faster than his team-mates, and although England were rewarded for an overall attacking policy by going 1-0 up at Lord's, Strauss has urged his players to be smart at the crease.

"When Ian's playing well he scores pretty quickly, just in a different style to KP I suppose," Strauss said.

"A lot has been talked about taking the game to the Aussies, and that's important, but what is even more important is playing the situations well."