Birmingham: England middle order batsman Ian Bell has dismissed the verbal volleys being thrown on him by Shane Warne calling him ‘the Shermanator’.

Warne bestowed Bell with the nickname during Australia’s 5-0 whitewash of England in 2006/07. It refers to Chuck Sherman, a nerdy character in the American Pie series of comedy films.

Bell has replaced the injured Kevin Pietersen in the England team for the third Ashes test and Warne had said that Australia should revive the taunt in this test.

But with Warne now retired from Test cricket, Bell told reporters here at Edgbaston on Tuesday: “He’s a legend. It was great to have an opportunity to play against him. What more can you say about the guy.”

“I think it’s not just me. I think he’s tried to pick on the whole of the England team. It’s been my week to cop a bit. But I don’t have to play against Shane Warne this week. He can say what he wants. I have to play against the 11 guys out there. It doesn’t really matter to me,” Bell said.

Warne, writing in his Times column, said: “I remember watching American Pie in the team hotel with Michael Clarke on the fourth evening of the Adelaide Test, and when the dorky ginger kid appeared, we both started laughing because it reminded us of Bell. “The next day, as I walked to my bowling mark, he just seemed to be staring at me, so I just said, ‘What are you looking at, Shermanator?’”

Bell, who has a poor record against Australia, averaging just 25 in the 10 tests that he has played against them said that he would be looking to turn the tables around this time. “I know my record against Australia is probably the weakest out of all the countries I’ve played, and that’s up to me now to turn around.”

“It’s a new-look Australia side from what I’ve played in the past. And it’s now up to me to go out and perform and play well in this Test match,” he added. Bell also went on to say that Australia will miss the services of Warne and Mcgrath who have retired from Test cricket. “You can’t replace those kind of guys overnight. They’re legends of the game. But this is a good Australian side. They showed at Cardiff they can play fantastic cricket.”

“You can’t just walk into a Test match against Australia. You have to get stuck in to do well. I fully expect that against this team, even though they haven’t got Warne and McGrath,” he added.

Tagged with: Ashes, Australia, England, Glen Mcgrath, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Michael Clarke, Shane Warne

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