Ian Bell would have every reason for excusing himself and pinching himself hard today to actually realise that he was in New Zealand as a replacement player with the full England side.

Winters in England have almost become a thing of the past for him. Three years ago he was in New Zealand with the England Under-19 side which drew their three "Test" series with New Zealand Under-19 1-1.

In the final match, in which England were beaten by an innings, in Alexandra, Bell scored 115 and 17.

In the first match, won by England, in New Plymouth he scored five and 91, and in Wellington for the second match he scored two and 10.

The Under-19 tour of New Zealand had been a big turning point for him. He grew up from being a schoolboy cricketer and Mike Gatting had given him some help.

"The experience I gained out here was really good."

Then having captained the England Under-19 team in India last winter, he was home for a weekend before flying out to join the England A team on their tour of the West Indies where he was given a good taste of intimidatory bowling.

This year, he had been in Australia with the ECB National Academy and was hardly home before he was called out to New Zealand as cover for the injured Mark Butcher.

As Bell put it himself, he has not really had any jetlag because when he got the call to come back his body clock was still on Australian time.

But his call-up is a significant move in his career, which since he opted for cricket over soccer when aged around 15-16, has been on a rapidly climbing escalator.

"Football got to the point at 15-16 that it was keeping my fitness up for cricket. That's the reason why I kept it going," he said in Wellington today.

A player regarded as one of the comers on the England scene he showed some of his potential with Warwickshire last year when playing 11 games and scoring 836 runs at an average of 64.30. He hit three centuries and four 50s for the club and had a highest score of 135.

People might be keen to attach labels of promise to him but Bell is clear on one thing, his main goal is to score as many runs as he can for Warwickshire in the coming summer, and that is his No 1 priority.

"The key for me at the moment is just to concentrate on scoring runs for Warwickshire and if I can keep doing that, and improve, and things go right and I can learn from the experiences I am going to gain out here and learn from Duncan [Fletcher] and all the players, it will help me towards becoming a decent Test cricketer," he said.

The recent tour of Australia had been worthwhile, even if not all the matchplay had been at first-class level.

It had been good to go out and play some winning cricket in the Australian situation and having experience on grounds like the MCG where they beat the Victoria 2nd XI which had been a great experience.

Being part of the Academy had helped him and helped his game. Especially on the physical side and with fitness.

"I am a lot stronger and fitter than I have ever been before," he said.

Bell has grown up admiring former England opener and captain Mike Atherton and he recalls the effect watching Atherton's battle with South African fast man Allan Donald at Trent Bridge and also the battle he had in South Africa had on him.

He admired Atherton's mental strength as much as anything else.

He is not really sure where he would prefer to bat in the line-up but is prepared to leave that Warwickshire to decide.

While he is a replacement player he has come out with the attitude of preparing to play. It was a policy that paid off for him when he went to the West Indies last year and he intends to continue that approach.

"I'm the type of player who likes to spend a bit of time at the crease and like to occupy the crease before I start playing shots. One of the strengths of my game is that I leave the ball quite well. I'd label myself as an innings builder rather than someone who goes out and smashes it from ball one."

"Knowing where off stump is, is a valuable thing. I look to leave and leave well."

When heard that Butcher was injured some team-mates had been asking him if he was ready to go.

Now he is here and as captain Nasser Hussain has put it, in contention for a place in the Test side tomorrow.

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