Player Profile

George Bell first showed his talents to a wider audience during England Under 19s’ run to the 50-over World Cup final in the Caribbean at the start of 2022 before debuting across all formats in Lancashire’s first team that summer.

In 2023, he continued his upwards trajectory, going on to play 27 matches across all formats and doing it all, be it with the bat, the wicketkeeping gloves and even the ball. He hit five fifties with a best of 91 in the September County Championship draw against Middlesex at Emirates Old Trafford.

He also claimed two wickets with his part-time off-spin throughout the campaign. 

But Bell’s main suits are his wicketkeeping and his batting. In all first-team cricket in 2023, he hit an encouraging 749 runs and took 32 catches and two stumpings. 

He is a versatile batter in the sense that he can be classical, innovative and powerful. He never takes a backward step. 

At that aforementioned 2022 Under 19s World Cup for England, he contributed two fifties in six matches in the middle order, averaging 43.66 and displaying plenty of invention.

Towards the end of that summer, he played the last two County Championship matches - wins against Essex away and Surrey at home. He took the gloves in both and earned particular praise for the way he kept on a difficult Chelmsford pitch in a debut fixture which lasted less than two days.

He also hit useful scores of 16 and 24 in a game with a high team total of 131. In fact, his second-innings 24 was the second highest individual score of the match.

The former Manchester Grammar School student signed a rookie professional contract with Lancashire in 2021 and scored a second-team Championship century - 119 not out - in a win over Glamorgan at the start of 2022.

Bell represented Lancashire’s age-groups from Under 13s to Under 17s and plays his club cricket for Alderley Edge in the Cheshire County Premier League.

He prepared for both the 2023 and 2024 campaigns with some winter grade cricket in Australia.