Bell laughs off Warne’s comments

"Warney keeps doing that sort of stuff, but that’s him, it doesn’t come as a surprise." Comeback man Ian Bell said.

"I don’t take that on to the field with me. It doesn’t bother me at all. I can’t control what other people say and think. For me it’s a matter of me going out and playing my own cricket and making sure that I contribute to our team winning the Ashes," Bell said.

"That’s what I want to do, I want to be part of winning the Ashes again with England. I have got the opportunity to play in a team that’s playing good cricket at the minute and to play for your country is the biggest honour you can have.

"To be left out for the last few months has hurt and hopefully I can contribute to a winning way with England," he added.

Bell said: "I look back at (my record against) the Australians as probably the one record I need to sort out in my career. I’m well aware of that, and I’m looking forward to putting that right."

"This is a big game. My job is to go out and score runs and that’s what I’ll be looking to do, no differently to how I’ve played Test cricket in the past."

"They are a world-class side and when they go 1-0 down they’ll come back even harder at you," he said on Sky Sports News.

"You’re not going to win an Ashes series by winning one Test match. You have to put in performances on the bounce. The guys know that, so they’ll be desperate to come out on Thursday, hit the ground running and play positive cricket.

"It’s a great time to be coming back into the England team.

"They’re playing some good cricket so hopefully I can feed off the confidence those guys have shown over the last couple of months."