NEW MATURITY HAS TIPPED THE BALLANCE

Yorkshire batter has put the bad times behind him with a great run to earn his recall

GARY BALLANCE is hoping to use experience and maturity as the extra weapons in his arsenal when he resumes his Test career this week. Dropped from the England Test team twice despite owning an average nudging 40 and with four tons to his name, Ballance has already experienced the ups and downs of international sport. He is an Ashes winner from 2015 but did not complete the series, and after two Tests against Bangladesh in the winter he did not feature at all against India even though he was on the trip. The 27-year-old could have become a little disillusioned and he did indeed wonder whether he would be back in an England shirt. But runs remain the hard currency and he has plenty of those this summer. Only Kumar Sangakkara has scored more than his 943 first-class runs at an average of 94.3 – and that is what has given him another crack. “It’s great to be recognised,” said Ballance. “The more you play, the more experience you get and the older you get the more you understand your game and the situations you find yourself in. “You’re in a better position to deal with things better with that extra experience, so I’ll keep doing what I’m doing and have the approach that no matter who I’m playing for the aim is just to score as many runs as I can to help the team out. “I’ve played enough cricket to know what is expected of me at international level and I think I’m capable of delivering. “What happened in the winter is just one of those things, it happens and I know it sometimes goes like that. Luckily there has been no hangover from the winter and I’m feeling good and I can keep that going.” It will be a familiar-looking England dressing room for the Yorkshire skipper as he gets changed next to county teammates Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow. Root knows better than most what he hopes to be getting from Ballance, but any suggestion this is a “favourites” pick is laughed out of town. Ballance added: “A lot of people have an input into picking the side, it’s not just down to Joe. And in any case he would have gone with who he thinks is best, which is how it should be. “There should be no favourites or anything like that. The selectors will have gone for what they think is best and whether you’re in the side or not you take it on the chin. That is how it is. “Rooty is his own captain. He has been deputy to Cooky for a few years and whenever he’s gone off Rooty has been doing it, so I’m sure he’ll be ready for it when he starts.”