England push will not upset Ballance
REPORTS GARY BALLANCE says leading Yorkshire this summer to what he hopes will be a third Specsavers County Championship title in four years does not mean he has given up on an England recall.
But push him on which means more to him and it is not hard to discern that leading his adopted county to the top of the domestic scene would better anything else he has achieved.
Ask around at Headingley and anyone will tell you that Ballance’s happy-go-lucky temperament is particularly well suited to dealing with not only the ups but the downs sport throws at you, which is just as well given what came his way last year when he went from England regular to yesterday’s man.
The Zimbabwe-born batsman, who started his Test career in 2014 with four hundreds in his first nine Tests and an average approaching 68 after his first 10, found his hold on international cricket slip.
His lowest point came when he was non-playing drinks carrier throughout an entire tour of India after his technique appeared to disintegrate in Bangladesh. Ballance, now 27, returned “stressed out and unhappy”, according to one close source.
But, looking at him on the outfield at Headingley this week as he talked through the campaign ahead, taking charge at Yorkshire has refreshed him. And a quick vox pop of their current squad, new coach Andrew Gale and even England captain Joe Root, suggests there is a unanimous belief he is going to be an excellent leader.
It is a measure of Ballance’s equable nature that he rails, albeit in a polite manner, when it is put to him that last year was a bad one on a personal level.
“It’s weird that people say that, but I got to represent my country, won some Test matches for England, and for Yorkshire came close in all three trophies. I scored a few hundreds as well,” he said.
“I don’t look back at it that terribly but the thing is when you have a bit of success, you get judged on what you have done before.
“It would have been nice if we had managed to win a trophy or two, that would have capped the year off, but it wasn’t that tough a year.
“Obviously you go through ups and downs but I try to keep level-headed whether it’s going good or bad.” With Root’s accession to the England captaincy in February, the prospects of a recall for his former flatmate – the pair lived together in Idle near Bradford in 2011 and 2012 – might seem a touch closer. But Ballance’s relaxed demeanour would
suggest that if it comes, it comes, but he is not going to lose sleep about it.
“I have not given up on England – not in the slightest. But if you get the opportunity to represent and lead the county who I have played for for 10 years it was impossible to say no,” he said.
“I don’t think that captaining a county means you can’t play for England any more but I love playing for Yorkshire and leading them back to the top would mean everything.
“I just want to focus on winning games for Yorkshire and if I ever get the call again, then great.”
All of his teammates seem to agree that Yorkshire have chosen well in appointing Ballance as captain. Jack Brooks, who could miss the first five weeks of the season with a calf problem, says that first impressions of Ballance can be very deceptive.
“Yes, he is very level-headed but he is very astute and is a massive cricket badger – he knows the game inside-out and knows a lot of stats,” said the fast bowler.
The stats that matter are that Yorkshire were 19 points adrift of a ‘three-peat’ last season in a Championship that went down to the wire at Lord’s on the final afternoon, with Gale’s side losing out to Middlesex.
Ballance has set his levelheaded course on regaining the County Championship pennant. It will be a tough ask, with Yorkshire suffering early losses in the bowling ranks.
Apart from Brooks, fellow seamers Ryan Sidebottom, Liam Plunkett and David Willey are all sidelined with niggles or longer-term injuries.
But it is a task that Ballance is ready to face head on, starting with Hampshire in the Championship opener at Headingley today.
I try to keep level-headed if it’s going good or bad