Thursday 19 June 2014 14:16, UK
Ian Bell believes he is 'lucky' to have enjoyed such a fruitful England career as he prepares to play his 100th Test match.
The 32-year-old will reach the milestone in the second Test with Sri Lanka, which begins at Headingley on Friday.
Bell scored his 40th Test half-century in the drawn first Test at Lord’s to add to his 20 centuries and admits it has been a rollercoaster ride.
"It's amazing to achieve this (100 caps). I wouldn't say it's all been straightforward, there have been some real lows as well as highs,” he told Sky Sports News.
"I've really enjoyed the challenges we've had. The last few years have been brilliant.
"I feel lucky. When you look back when you finish I think that I've been very lucky to play in a great period of English cricket.
"There have been some great players that I've played with and I'm excited by the new challenges ahead of us as well."
Looking ahead to the Headingley match, Bell insists they will increase their over rate after being fined by the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Tuesday.
England were punished for bowling too slowly at Lord’s but Bell insists they have learned from that mistake.
"We took that bit longer than normal so hopefully we can tweak a little bit here and there to get back up to speed,” he added.
"We certainly tried as much as we can to get round as fast (as we could) with a four-man seam attack.
“I imagine here again with predominantly seam bowling we're going to have to get around as quick as we can."
Watch England v Sri Lanka from Headingley from Friday. Coverage begins on Sky Sports 2 at 10:30am.
