The time when England cricketers are being offered the opportunity to become dollar millionaires in an afternoon is not a good time to be out of form and Ian Bell is understandably jittery. It is the morning of Friday’s Twenty20 match against New Zealand, for most England players the last chance but one to show what they can do in cricket’s raciest genre before the selectors pick their squad for the Stanford 20/20 challenge.

Bell is under a bit of pressure. He needs runs in the Twenty20 match to put himself in contention for the big one on November 1 (he wasn’t selected for the world Twenty20 last year) and needs runs in the ODI series, starting in Durham today, to keep himself in the frame for the Tests against South Africa. If Andrew Flintoff is fit to return and England bring him back at No 6, Bell might well be the one to make way.

But Bell, sitting in the hotel lobby with cap pulled firmly over his eyes, refutes suggestions that he would be nervous walking out to bat later that day at Old Trafford. He says he is always a little nervous playing for England in front of a full house. He’s not even willing to concede that he is out of form.

“Since I got back from New Zealand, I’ve hit the ball as well as I ever have for Warwickshire,” he insists. “I’ve scored a lot of runs for Warwickshire [actually 266 at an average of 38] and it feels to me that in Test match cricket I have only had four knocks, one of them not out, so I don’t feel I’ve had a lot of cricket in the past three or four weeks. I’ve not had time to get in or out of form. It’s a matter of getting past the first 20 balls.”

I bluntly point out that he’s scored one hundred in his previous 33 innings for England in all forms of cricket dating back to last August, hardly a great run. “It probably isn’t. But if you look at the cricket, we didn’t score 400 as a unit, which indicates some scrappy cricket . . .” This is an interesting point about the failings of the rest of the team; Bell has never scored a century for England without a teammate also scoring a hundred in the same innings.

“New Zealand were tough opponents,” he continues, “and the games were pretty low-scoring with the ball dominating. Sri Lanka was hard work. You say I’ve scored only one hundred but I’ve scored a lot of fifties [six, in all forms]. I know that if I want to become a really good player I’ve got to convert those into hundreds. But to be picked as a Wisden cricketer of the year doesn’t suggest I had a bad year last year.”

Peter Moores has been good at defending his top six . . .

“The guys have done it over a period of time. I don’t think it’s a closed shop by any means. You have to keep scoring runs to keep your place. It was shown when Andrew Strauss was left out that nobody is undroppable and he also showed that by being left out and coming back there can be positives with everything.”

When you were dropped in 2006, you came back a better player. Would it not be better to step back and reappraise your game?

“There’s no time that you ever want to step out and have a look at your game. You want to keep playing as much as you can. Three knocks don’t make me a bad player overnight. I find it a bit amazing. New Zealand opened my eyes with how much they fight. They made it difficult for us to prove we were the better team.” Would you not have liked to try and find form in Warwickshire’s championship match between the second and third Tests?

“After back-to-back Tests, it’s about finding the right balance. As an international cricketer, you’ve got to look at the long term. It’s a 12-month job. There’s no break and you need to plan mental breathers and be up for the next challenge.”

Your lbw dismissal at Trent Bridge looked like that of a man out of form...

“When I watched it again, I think I was a bit anxious to score runs. I was looking to hit through midwicket. With runs behind me, I’d have played it down the ground but sometimes when you’re desperate to score runs, to score a hundred, that makes you try something a bit different.

“If I’m the guy that goes if Fred [Flintoff] comes back into the side, that doesn’t worry me. The amount of cricket we play, it is not going to be 11 people who win Test series over the next few years but 15 or 16. It doesn’t bother me what people are thinking or suggesting. It only bothers me what Peter Moores thinks, what fits for the England dressing-room and what makes me happy. All you can think about is your next game in an England shirt.”

And within a few hours, Bell’s single-minded focus had paid dividends. Opening the innings at Old Trafford, he guided England to an unchallenging target of 124 with an accomplished 60 from 46 balls. His first boundary came off an edge past slip, but after that his touch returned and he struck the ball sweetly all round the wicket. He looked a class player once more and showed that Twenty20 doesn’t need to be all about slogging.

“It’s been a frustrating month,” he conceded afterwards. “I came here to free-up and play a few shots. Our bowlers did a fantastic job and I didn’t need to do more than play proper cricket shots. New Zealand was quite a frustrating series for a few people. Now is the time for me to improve, to kick on and get some runs behind me before the South Africans arrive.”

With Andrew Strauss in as cover for Alastair Cook and set to make his first ODI appearance for England since the World Cup, Bell is expected to retain his place as opener alongside Luke Wright for today’s game, with Kevin Pietersen moving up to No 3 at his own request.

TV match England v NZ

Today, Sky Sports 1, 10.30am