Ian Bell steps out of the shadows to seize advantage for England

To his critics, Ian Bell will always be a batsman in short trousers, but in the oppressive heat of the Shere Bangla stadium today he came of age as he finally rid himself of a statistic that has been used to demean his entire Test career. Bell reached his 10th Test hundred – 138 in a shade under seven hours – as England consolidated a still-uncertain position by the close of the third day of the second Test, but more importantly this was the first occasion when he could not be accused of succeeding in someone else's shadow. Previously, every other hundred had been made after an England team‑mate had set the tone by reaching a century before him. There was a close-run affair against Pakistan in Faisalabad when he was pipped by Kevin Pietersen, and other occasions when the statistic had felt unfair, but statistics do not register near misses. It has invariably presented as a sign of weakness; he was always the back‑up boy. No longer. Perhaps the Barmy Army will even deign to write a song about him. "I've put a few things to bed that I needed to," he said. "I can't say that the stat is unfair, because it's a stat, it's there. But it's something I believed that if I worked hard I could remove. "The second session was as hot as we've had and, this Test, Bangladesh have batted well and bowled tidily. So it has felt like a proper Test match – a normal Test on the subcontinent." Bell's progress towards his hundred had felt like a throwback as he spent much of his time in the 90s batting in an England cap. But the helmet returned for Rubel Hossian on 98 and it was Rubel who he chopped adroitly through backward point for the boundary that afforded him such relief. England were only four runs adrift of Bangladesh's 419 when Bell became the sixth England batsman to fall, mis‑hitting a leg‑side pick-up and holing out to Jahurul Islam. Tim Bresnan's stubborn unbeaten 74 from 214 balls, his highest Test score, also assured England of stability. Bresnan has sat in Yorkshire dressing rooms and been regaled by Jason Gillespie about his late-order double hundred for Australia against Bangladesh, and he was intent upon tucking in. But it was Bell's day. With temperatures in the high 30s and under skies of polluted blue, it was a day when only mad dogs and Englishmen would decide to come out of the shadows. Mad Dog is the last nickname one would associate with Ian Bell, but he was a little terrier and in that he could justifiably take pride. Some will still scoff that this was only Bangladesh, the weakest Test side in the world – certainly the weakest Test bowling attack – but he came in with England 107 for three in the 42nd over on the second evening, with Jonathan Trott static and England's reply to Bangladesh's 419 in urgent need of fashioning. His response was exemplary, textbook stuff. The insistent slow left‑arm of Shakib Al Hasan, who had taken four for 99 from 57 overs as he entered the fourth day, presented a challenge, as did the reverse inswing conjured up by Rubel Hossain, which was of a different quality to anything produced by England's attack on this tour. Against the rest, he accepted his opportunity. Bell's light-footedness was his chief asset. His footwork against the slow bowlers enabled him to assert himself and as Abdur Razzak, in particular, dropped his left-arm slows short, as a result he ticked along. He was dropped once, on 119, when Imrul Kayes failed to hold a low, diving catch at midwicket off Shafiul Islam. Shakib had a hand in the first four England wickets to fall – literally in the case of Graeme Swann, who was run out as Bresnan's straight drive was touched back on to the stumps. It was possible to believe that Shakib had done it deliberately. Trott, out in the third over of the morning, did not add to his overnight 64, and met a suitably passive end when the ball rebounded off a defiant front pad, then off his elbow on to the stumps. Matt Prior played forcefully for his 62 as England finally began to pick up the tempo, but he was bowled by Shakib, beaten in the flight as he advanced to hit him down the ground. When Stuart Broad fell lbw to Mohammad Mahmadullah in the closing moments, England's lead suddenly looked vulnerable. As Pietersen remarked after the second day, it remains a matter of who cracks first.