Ian Bell still occasionally has Shane Warne's ghost of Ashes past in his ear - but the old nicknames have little resonance these days.

The last laughs appear to be with the Bell of 2013, and on Australia, as he proved with the Trent Bridge hundred which helped England go 1-0 up in the Ashes and is considered by many the best of his 18 in Tests to date.

It is all a far cry from his first Anglo-Australian encounters, as a 23-year-old back in 2005 when England won back the Ashes for the first time in a generation but he knew he had not done himself justice.

Then 2006/07 was a little better individually, but a nightmare for England as the Ashes were lost again in a whitewash - and then Hampshire skipper Warne had the callow Bell in his sights and acerbic earshot.

The master leg-spinner's successors tried some of the same tactics in Nottingham last week.

But as England prepare to consolidate the 1-0 Investec series lead they established there when the second Test starts at Lord's tomorrow, Bell made it clear he is just not listening any more.

"Maybe in the past I wasn't prepared or ready for it," he said.

The opposite is true this summer for Bell.

"I knew it was going to be hard work, aggressive bowling - but now with the mental work we do with (team psychologist) Mark Bawden, it is about not being surprised by anything.

"As a group, we are trying to think about the situations you might come across - and when you walk out into the middle, if it happens it happens."

Bell, who became a father for the first time eight months ago, added: "Maybe in 2005 and in 2006/07, I wasn't quite expecting it - and then it is hard to react to what happens.

"I don't think the characters have anything to do with it. I think it is more to do with where I was as a cricketer.

"As a 23-year-old, I was inexperienced and didn't know what it was about. Looking back now, I don't think I was ready for Test cricket.

"I knew I was way off the pace and had to improve quite a bit if I wanted to be around for a while."

While Warne tormented with ball in hand, and his barbed comments, Bell wilted.

"2005 was disappointing - I didn't score anywhere near enough runs - but I think I learned a lot about myself and where I needed to get to if I wanted to be a decent Test cricketer," he said.

"As someone about to play my 90th Test, I've had some highs and lows - and maybe had to learn a bit on the way.

"I've certainly got a bit more about me to deal with it now than probably what I had in 2005."

Does he have a mental gameplan then, to go with his silky technique?

"It's something you have to work on. It is very individual ... finding out what works for you and trying to stick to it," he said.

"If someone is coming aggressive at you - whether it's bouncers or whether it's verbal or whatever - they are trying to take you away from whatever you do well.

"It is important to try to stick to your things that make you go out and score runs.

"I don't see myself as someone who goes back verbally ... if I start trying to hit balls that aren't there, that's me losing what I do well as a batsman.

"As a group, Australian teams are going to be hard. They are going to come at you hard with the way they bowl, the way they dive around the field, their body language - everything.

"It's not always about the words."

It never was, exclusively.

"That Australia team didn't always just sledge you," he said.

"What they did was put you under pressure ..."

Michael Clarke's tourists will try to do the same this summer, of course.

One of Warne's favourite tactics with Bell was to remind him he had a physical resemblance to the 'Sherminator' - a nerd character in the American Pie film franchise.

It is a reference which still gets the odd airing, but falls on deaf ears.

"There is always the odd muttering," he said.

"I've played Australia enough times ... it's not new."

There will be no response, other than with runs, Bell claims - and he insists England will not be tempted either into any of their own pointed remarks about sacked coach Mickey Arthur's claims that captain Michael Clarke and senior all-rounder Shane Watson do not see eye to eye.

"If you start looking at Australia then we miss out on our strengths," he said.

"That's when we start playing badly, I think.

"We've just got to make sure that, whatever has happened with Australia, they can deal with - and we just concentrate on doing well and not looking too far ahead."