Ashes 2015: Ian Bell is England's perfect No 3 – as long as he still has the hunger and isn't burnt out by 11 long years

After England’s disastrous defeat at Lord’s there have been questions about the future of their batting and about the long-term future of Ian Bell. What matters most for Bell and for any senior player is not his age – he is 33 – but his mindset, his hunger. I was 35 when I decided to retire because I had had enough. I am confident that Bell wants to keep going and keep scoring runs. But he needs to prove that he does, starting next Wednesday at Edgbaston.

Every player is different and there are some batsmen who keep scoring centuries into their late thirties. Kumar Sangakkara will play his final Test in August, at 37. Jacques Kallis played his last Test at 38. But age is just a number and players make their own decision at different times.

I chose to go after the Adelaide Test, when Australia beat England on the dramatic final day, in December 2006. For me it was nothing to do with my body or my skills letting me down. It was my mind. I was just burnt out by it all. In Test cricket, you have got to give so much to the game and to your team. You have got to live and breathe it for 24 hours. And I got to the stage where I just couldn’t any more.

I have spoken to Australian Rules footballers about this and they say it is the little things that tell you your time is up, like not wanting to be out on the training paddock for so long. That is how I knew I was done with playing Test cricket, when it became a bit of a chore, a boring job. The issue was not so much the batting, but everything else that went with it: the meetings, the training, the fitness sessions. You do it all for so long, all those little things, but if you are not 100 per cent committed to them then you are not at the mental level you need to be.

Of course, walking away from Test cricket is a very hard scenario. I loved being part of the Australia team. They were my family for so long. I loved all of the guys. Those were the best moments of my life and I loved everything that we did together. But if you have been playing international cricket for a long time, and touring together, then things can change. I reached the stage where I had done it all and it was not the same any more.

These are the issues that every senior player faces when they are the far side of 30. The question for Bell, Shane Watson, Chris Rogers and the rest is how much they want to keep playing Test cricket. Bell has been playing Test cricket for 11 years now. I think he should continue and hope that he does. But he must ask himself: “Do I want it? Do I want to be in the side?” Because you have to be 100 per cent. Or you are going to get found out.

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I hope Bell does show that and he has the perfect opportunity to do that from No 3 next week. For me, Bell is the perfect No 3 because when it is working for him he has the perfect technique. And England need to find a way to strengthen their batting in the next three Tests if they want to win the Ashes.

I wrote last week that Australia needed to play more “old-school Test cricket” at Lord’s, to bat with discipline and patience, if they wanted to score the first-innings runs that put England under pressure. Australia needed guys to dig in and bat all day. And that is exactly what Rogers and Steve Smith did, and we all saw how it turned out. Now England must do the same.

The problem is not the captain. Alastair Cook is certainly standing up. He batted incredibly for that 96 in the first innings, facing 233 deliveries in almost six hours at the crease. But what Cook needs now is some help, some guys to bat with him. Because no side can cope with routinely being 30 for 3 or 50 for 4. Australia certainly could not. It is very hard to post big totals when you are relying on Joe Root and Ben Stokes to come in further down the order and score you runs.

What England need is more fight throughout the side. Jonny Bairstow seems to be a tough character, which is good for them. But Adam Lyth needs to start scoring runs, too.

The way it ended for England at Lord’s, being bowled out in 37 overs, is tough. It is not a good look at all. Cook will have wanted a bit more fight from his team on that Sunday. No side at any level wants to get bowled out like that. Bell still has an important role to stop that from happening again in future. I hope he still has the mindset for it.