“I can see someone like him being like the rock of the English batting line-up for many years to come”

Image courtesy of: Zimbio

England pace bowler Stuart Broad has backed batsman Gary Ballance to bounce back from his latest setback and return to the Test team with a bang.

Ballance was dropped midway through the recent Ashes series against Australia despite starting the series on a high with a terrific knock of 60. However, Ballance struggled to find his touch after that as he made scores of 0, 23 and 14 in his next three innings. With the 25-year-old failing to have an impact with the bat, the national selectors decided to drop him and call up wicketkeeper-batsman Jonny Bairstow, who was absolutely dominating the county cricket circuit at the time.

Even though Ballance did not make an appearance for the remainder of the series, which England went on to win 3-2 to regain the Ashes, Broad is confident that the Zimbabwe-born batsman will be back to his best in no time.

“A player who I think has an incredible Test career ahead of him is Gary Ballance,” Broad told reporters. “I know he missed out after Lord’s but let’s not forget he still averages 48 in Test match cricket and has been young batsman of the year.

“He has a temperament which is very much suited to maybe the old style of Test cricket, but he does not want to give his wicket away, he will bat for you all day. At times we forget he has never batted [at number] three in his life, he bats at number five. He was asked to bat at number three for England and came to average 60 and did incredibly well.

“As every cricketer I have ever known, he had a bit of a tough period for five or six Test matches, missed out and so missed an incredible part of the summer, but he will at some stage come back into this England Test team to have a huge amount of success, and I can see someone like him being like the rock of the English batting line-up for many years to come.”