Published: Apr 15, 2016, 06:18 PM (IST)
Edited: Apr 15, 2016, 06:18 PM (IST)
England batsman Gary Ballance has admitted that his axing from the national side during the Ashes 2015 hit him harder than he expected. Ballance was dropped by England two Tests into the Ashes 2015, following a string of poor performances and his technical flaw being exposed by New Zealand earlier in the English summer and then Australia. Ballance’s habit of batting deep in the crease was believed to have been the reason for his failures against New Zealand and Australia, something which the batsman has rubbished following an impressive start for Yorkshire in this County season. Ballance has said he needed to be a little more patient with the criticism that came his way.
The left-arm batsman was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo, “It is never nice losing your place and to be honest, it was tough. For a while I was struggling mentally and normally I consider myself quite strong in that respect. I was just going through a tough patch. I was struggling for form — you tell me a cricketer that hasn’t.”
He added, “As far as I was concerned, it was just one of those things but because my technique is a little different to a standard person people like to comment. That’s fair enough — people have got a job to do and that’s fine with me.”
Ballance reckons that as the top-flight cricketer, he should have handled these issues in a much different way. “But you have to be quite strong as a professional to block these things out, especially when people start jumping on the bandwagon,” he said.
Talking about his batting technique and the changes he has made, Ballance said, “There are always little things that I can do and that’s what I’ve done, I’ve changed little things are worked on little things but the core is still there. As long as I know when I’m at the crease I am balanced and with a good head position, I’ll be able to move forward and back as needed. When you are going through a bit of bad form you are always looking at little things, what is going wrong, what you have done right in the past. I just tried to look at how I was playing a few months before that in the West Indies.
“I’ve had the same technique throughout my career and I’m pretty happy with the way my stats have been in Test cricket and First-Class cricket. I know what works for me and I know when I score runs what I do well,” Ballance added.
Ballance knows that the early retirement of James Taylor has opened up a slot in the England Test side, but he is not looking too far into the future. “I’m really not looking very far ahead. I just want to get back to playing for Yorkshire and scoring runs. If I can do that, everything else will take care of itself.”
Talking about Yorkshire, the 26-year-old said, “Everyone around the club was very good. The players were very welcoming at having me back in the side. There are guys who know what it is like to lose your place, who have been in and out of international cricket and know how to deal with people who it has happened to. It’s nice to come back into a side that was winning and playing good cricket, that always helps.
“I got a few decent scores, a big hundred at Sussex and a few other 50s so I was pretty happy with the way it went. And at the end of the day we won the Championship, and team success always breeds individual success.”
Ballance concluded by saying that his England and Yorkshire teammate Joe Root has provided inspiration as far as making international comebacks are concerned. “All sportsmen have their ups and downs and the ones that come back stronger are the ones that go on to have a good career. Joe is a good example of that.”
