Gary Ballance will be fit to face Pakistan at Lord’s on Thursday, with his head coach at Yorkshire, Jason Gillespie, also confident that the left-hander’s much-analysed technique will stand up to scrutiny on his return to Test cricket.
Ballance, who was recalled by England last week after a year out of the side, had given the management an injury scare before the series opener after being left out of his county’s T20 Blast victory away at Derbyshire on Sunday due to a tight groin.
Gillespie insists this was simply a precautionary move given the significance of the 26-year-old’s impending international comeback, with the club’s medical staff having already given him the all-clear.
He told the Guardian: “It was a conservative call but we didn’t want to take any sort of gamble. If he’d slipped and tweaked it properly, it would be have been devastating for him. He got treatment from the physio and he said he’s good to go. I would be amazed if he didn’t front up this week.”
The inclusion of Ballance in the squad last Thursday caught most observers by surprise, not least because the England head coach, Trevor Bayliss, had hinted at a preference to play Ben Stokes as a specialist batsman in place of the dropped Nick Compton, despite the all-rounder having not bowled since undergoing knee surgery at the end of May.
Ballance, whose first spell in international cricket came to a halt after the second Ashes Test last summer, had averaged only 28 in the County Championship this season before his century against Middlesex at Scarborough last week that caught the attention of selectors James Whitaker and Angus Fraser.
Perhaps the biggest question mark is how Ballance will fair against Pakistan’s Mohammad Amir and Wahab Riaz given his apparent issues when facing the left-arm quicks of New Zealand and Australia last year. Despite four centuries in his first 15 Tests and an average of 47, he was replaced in the England side by his Yorkshire team-mate Jonny Bairstow.
The cause of this was widely attributed to an idiosyncratic technique that features a back-and-across movement and leaves him deep in the crease but Ballance has always maintained that no dramatic overhaul is required. Gillespie, who, like Bayliss, preaches player self-reliance, is comfortable with this approach.
He said: “Gary is going well. There’s a lot of talk about technique and we know he has a big back-and-across movement but the key is the timing of that. When he gets that right, he looks to get forward. And the fact is, at international level, with the pace they bowl at, no batsman gets big strides in. It’s more about your body position when you’re playing the ball.
“ It’s his technique and he’s had it for a long time; he continuously fine-tunes it. And contrary to what people think and assume, he has always been aware of the need to do that. At Yorkshire, the first thing we ask a player when they walk into a net is what they hope to get out of it and his is always the timing of his pre-ball movement and getting back into the ball. So he’s well aware of it.
“Gary is also very strong mentally; he can absorb a lot of pressure out in the middle. He’s shown he’s got the temperament and the game for Test cricket. Plus, most really good players lose their place at some point in their career. It’s how they bounce back.”
England, who will give one debut at Lord’s this Thursday when they decide between the uncapped Jake Ball and Toby Roland-Jones for the final seamer’s berth, are already expected to include Stokes and record wicket-taker Jimmy Anderson in the squad for the second Test at Old Trafford that starts on 22 July.
Both players will train with the squad at Lord’s this week, along with the fast bowler Mark Wood, who took one for 25 from four overs during Durham’s Twenty20 win against Leicestershire on Sunday in what was his return to first-team cricket following two ankle operations.
