England need No3 issue resolved before Ashes interrogation

Ballance failings against pace suggest he is not the man to set the tone at the top of the order

It is the morning of Nov 26 at the Gabba and England have lost an early wicket to roars of approval by the crowd of 40,000. While attention has been focused on the speedgun to see whether Mitchell Starc is rivalling the pace of Mitchell Johnson on England’s previous traumatic visit to Brisbane, Josh Hazlewood has nipped in to have one of England’s openers caught behind.

Now, who would you most want to see emerging from the tunnel and walk out to partner Alastair Cook or Keaton Jennings? Do you want a Cavalier who will take the attack to Australia, but at the risk of getting out cheaply, so Joe Root has to come in at 30 for two? The Australians will be going wild if that is the situation, as in 2013-14 the moment Johnson found his range and ripped into Jonathan Trott, terminally.

Or would you prefer a

Kenny Barrington marched out with a Union Jack on his puffed-out chest and averaged 77

Roundhead who will dig in, defend, and see off the new ball which, being a Kookaburra, becomes a far more manageable proposition after 20 overs?

The next Ashes series would appear to hinge on whether England can amass large totals in their first innings, forcing Australia’s pace bowlers – faster, and collectively superior, but more physically fragile – to bowl ever more spells until they succumb to injury.

The past tells us that England’s No3s have belonged to one or other of these categories – the successful ones, that is. Some fine batsmen have tried the position which is regarded as the one which sets the tone for the whole innings – for the whole team – without making a fist of it, like Mike Atherton, who averaged 16 there, or Mark Ramprakash, who averaged 10, in spite of scoring millions at No3 for Surrey.

Even Root, for all his skills, could not quite get his head around the demands of No3. He would tend to force the pace, and get himself out for 50-odd, rather than going at the one dictated by the game situation, which is what Kane Williamson does for New Zealand. He is the modern master of No3.

King of England’s defenders at three has been Kenny Barrington, who clenched his jaw, flexed forearms like hams and marched out with a Union Jack on his puffed-out chest. He ground ’em down and averaged 77.

Trott was a worthy successor; so, too, John Edrich and Nasser Hussain – and, so far as statistics go, a chap called Gary Ballance. For all the expressions of doubt after Ballance was restored for the first Test against South Africa, the left-hander from Zimbabwe and Yorkshire has the seventh-highest average of all England No3s who have made 1,000 Test runs.

King of the Cavalier category is Wally Hammond, who creamed bowlers through the covers like a right-handed Gower and averaged 74. Both played in high-scoring eras – Hammond in the 1930s, Barrington in the 1960s – but still, it was some solidity which these two gave England, peeling off a century once in every three to four innings, almost the same rate as Sir Don Bradman.

Also in this category of counterattacker come Peter May, Ted Dexter, Tom Graveney, Bill Edrich, Mike Gatting, Graham Gooch, David Gower, Alec Stewart, Graeme Hick (not that he often let himself go as he did in county cricket), Mark Butcher, Michael Vaughan – and Johnny Tyldesley, a forefather of Vaughan’s, who ran down the uncovered pitch to play daring strokes in the Edwardian era and was the only non-amateur batsman in the England team.

Trevor Bayliss, England’s head coach, has always expressed his preference for this attacking type of No3 – even when Nick Compton was casting for the role.

So, are England building their house on sand if they persist with Ballance: will he make runs this summer, only to fail this winter? A structural defect, like England’s opening partnership in one-day internationals which came unstuck during the Champions Trophy.

Ballance at three has scored four Test centuries: three against Asian attacks in England, the other on the slowest of pitches at North Sound in Antigua.

In his three Tests against Australia, Ballance has shown all of the mental virtues necessary, batting with the utmost defiance, but not ticked every technical box. It has been more like bouncer, bouncer, bouncer, full-length ball, goodnight.

England possess a batsman who bats at three for his county in Moeen Ali, but he is doing rather well as an all-rounder, averaging 78 at No7.

Mark Stoneman opening with Cook, and Jennings at three and Ballance at five, would be another option; but there are not many others.

As Alex Hales suggested when throwing his helmet into the ring as a future No4, life is so much easier away from the new ball, outside the tone-setting top three.