Gary Ballance: Still searching for the right balance

Joe Root-led England will go up against South Africa in the third Test of the four-match series on Thursday.

Both teams have plenty to play for after two contrasting matches, where hosts sealed a comfortable victory in the first match, and Proteas did the same in the other.

Not many changes are expected in the next match as teams set to go in with more or less the same teams, but one change is certain to take place as England’s Gary Ballance is set to miss the Test and possibly remainder of the series after fracturing his finger.

The departure of Ballance means Essex’s Tom Wisely will make his debut playing at number three.

So the question arises with that change is: will the England team miss the top-order batsman or will they not? The answer is pretty clear for everyone to understand.

Ballance's is the most recent case in English cricket which remains a dilemma no matter how one looks at it.

The 27-year-old, who was dropped after a series of poor performances in the Test series against Pakistan and Bangladesh last year, was selected on the back of an outstanding County season while playing for Yorkshire, where he scored 815 runs in 11 innings at an astonishing average of 101.87 — only second to great Kumar Sangakkara.

However, even then, the Zimbabwe-born left hander managed to score just 85 runs in four innings, with the best of 34 — once again making everyone wonder how someone who thrives at domestic level looks so average at the global stage.

A certain answer to that query is unknown, but by the look of it, it seems that the mental strength to survive in the international arena is what is missing with Ballance.

It is often said that to be successful in the international cricket, one need more than just talent and it seems like Ballance absolutely fits that phrase.

The left-hander’s case reminds you of Pakistan’s Faisal Iqbal, who used to score tons of runs in the domestic circuit, but failed to deliver when he was called for national team.

Looking closely at how Ballance’s career, it becomes clear that perhaps talent is not something he lacks, but it’s the attitude to grind it out in tough circumstance which is missing

The Yorkshire batsman first announced himself in the international arena in 2014, where he struck three centuries in four matches against Sri Lanka and India.

But since then, as soon as oppositions figured his flaws, he became less effective with time, and soon he was dropped from the team.

The most important thing to understand here is that he was not the first batsman in the world to have problems while facing the short ball, nor he was the first to have problems while coming on to the front foot after series of short pitch deliveries.

However, for someone who has already represents England in 23 clearly lacked mental toughness to see the situation out in tough circumstances, which is exactly why he only managed to score just one century in the 17 Tests which followed.

In the beginning, Ballance’s success, even though it was clear that he was very limited with technique, was down to his good form and confidence, where he capitalized on every opportunity with both hands, and since not many teams faced him before, it took them time to figure out how to get through his defence.

England’s former off-spinner Graeme Swann critcisied Ballance and called him the ‘most vulnerable man in world cricket’, but it will not be fair to critcise him only as selectors must take some blame as well, because they kept giving him chances even though he clearly looks unsettled at this level.

At 27, Ballance can still offer England a lot in the future, but for that there is an urgent need for things to be planned as to how to take things forward for the left-hander, which should include more foreign leagues exposure, more tours with England Lions etc.

For now, he looks like a man shadow of the one who scored three brilliant centuries against Asian giants, but with better planning, he might well become the man England were hoping him to become all those years.