Player Profile
The summer of 2025 was one to remember for emerging wicketkeeper-batter George Bell, even if it wasn’t filled with first-team appearance after first-team appearance.
Bell, 23, did impress at that level, with him scoring a maiden first-team century in a Metro Bank One-Day Cup defeat against Durham at Liverpool in August, a superb 104 off 115 balls opening the batting.
He went on to play a couple of late-season Rothesay County Championship matches and scored 45 and 20 not out in the win over Glamorgan at Cardiff, this time batting at number four.
Bell didn’t just knock on the first-team door in 2025, he pretty much blew them off with a run of form in the second team which was absolutely remarkable.
In four red-ball appearances through June and July - six innings, to be precise, he racked up scores of 284 not out, 54, 111 not out, 29 and 186.
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 - 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 was just short of that in 2024 - 655 runs and 27 catches and four stumpings - but did post an excellent first-class best of 99 in the first innings of an early-season Championship draw against Hampshire at the Utilita Bowl.
It was heartbreak for Bell and team-mates and coaches alike, given he was run out one short of a maiden century. Thankfully, as aforementioned, that came in 2025 against the white ball.
He is a versatile batter in the sense that he can be classical, innovative and powerful. He never takes a backward step, but he has plenty of composure to boot.
At that 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 that 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, 2024 and 2025 campaigns with some winter grade cricket in Australia.
The most recent was a successful stint with Sydney club Randwick Petersham. He averaged just short of 60 in their limited overs competition, posting 450 runs with a best of 73.
The Mancunian plays his club cricket at home for Newton-le-Willows, having previously represented Alderley Edge.