If any member of England’s touring party in the Caribbean can be forgiven for having a World Cup hangover it is Gary Ballance. The 25-year-old batsman was parachuted into the team, at the key position of No3 no less, on the eve of the team’s opening match of the tournament against Australia in the bear pit of the MCG. It would have been a tough ask of anyone, let alone a relative international rookie who had only just overcome a fractured finger.
Ballance duly bombed, his sequence of scores reading 10, 10, 10 and six before he was dropped for the penultimate group match against Bangladesh in Adelaide, where defeat consigned England to the most ignominious of early World Cup exits. However, a new tour promises a fresh start and Ballance can console himself with a remarkable set of statistics in Test cricket. The Zimbabwean-born batsman averages 60.75 across eight matches and has three centuries and three fifties to his name. So the reasons for optimism are there and he is keen to play them up.
“It’s been a tough winter but you have to move on,” Ballance said. “Test cricket has gone well for me, so I have to look at what I did well last summer and take that into this series. We’re obviously disappointed with how the World Cup went but you can’t really dwell on it too much. You have to learn from what you did badly and try to get better. That’s what we’re doing. It’s a change of format and we’ve won our last three Tests so you have to take those positives into this series. We have to look at last summer, when we beat India, and produce the same kind of cricket in this series.”
The position of Peter Moores, England’s coach, has come into sharp focus following the World Cup. With an Ashes series looming on the horizon this summer, Moores knows victory against West Indies is paramount to preserve his own position. England start their tour in earnest on Monday with the first of two two-day matches against a St Kitts & Nevis Invitation XI at Warner Park. With confidence in short supply, a good start will be essential for both Moores and Alastair Cook, the Test captain, who can now be thankful for being stripped of the one-day captaincy on the eve of England’s departure for the World Cup.
Ballance owes Moores much, the Lancastrian’s faith in putting the Yorkshire batsman at three in England’s Test order being repaid with a series of outstanding performances during last summer’s 3-1 series win against India.
“For me he’s been brilliant,” said Ballance after being asked about the speculation over the coach’s future. “Since I started working with him I’ve scored a few runs in Test cricket so I’ve only got good things to say about him. He’s been brilliant with me and everyone else – he’s been very good. He’s definitely helped me on a personal level and in a team sense he’s been good.”
The team are behind him too, despite the awkward persona Moores transmits in public. “Yes, from what I’ve seen then yes, definitely,” he said. “Everyone’s behind him and everyone’s behind Cooky and we’re focusing on winning this series and not looking too far ahead.”
Colin Graves, who takes over as chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board next month, has written off West Indies as ‚“mediocre” and threatened “inquiries” if Moores’ team do not beat them. It is, perhaps unsurprisingly, not a view shared by anyone in the England camp, many of whom still remember the 1-0 defeat here in 2009.
“Well, I don’t think they’re a pushover,” Ballance said. “They’ve got some quality players in their bowling attack and with the bat so we’re not taking them lightly. We’ve worked hard the last few days and we go in with confidence from the last series but we’re going to have to start well and put in a good performance at the start of the Test series. You can’t dwell on the past or look too far ahead. You’ve got to look at the next game and do what you can to win that.”
Despite the trauma of this winter, England should still have enough to win the Test series, which starts in Antigua a week on Monday. “You could say that,” Ballance said, “but it’s also in the West Indies, it’s their home series and they had a good result last time here against us. Like I said if we start well and get on the front foot early on we can look to win that first game and push on from there.”
So no inquiry will be needed then? “Let’s hope not,” replied Ballance, who perhaps captured the sentiment of everyone who has an interest in the health of English cricket.
