Time for little bit of Ballance in England selection - Chris Waters

For why, if it is obvious to the average man in the street that Joe Denly is extremely unlikely to be the solution at No 3, and Jos Buttler the solution as the team’s wicketkeeper/batsman, is it not obvious to the selectors/management?

Sure enough, Denly made little impression in the four-wicket defeat at the Ageas Bowl, contributing scores of 18 and 29 to make it 15 Tests without a hundred since his debut last year, and Buttler (one hundred in 42 Tests), contributed 35 and 9 and also dropped a vital catch on the final day.

Although it is always players who win or lose games by dint of their performances, it could be logically argued that England’s selection strategy cost them the match.

And although this column has nothing personally against Ed Smith, is it unreasonable to enquire exactly what function he is fulfilling in his role as national selector since he appears to be not so much pulling rabbits from the hat as sending out lambs to the slaughter?

Unless Denly and Buttler somehow hit their straps (and Denly is the one making way for the returning Joe Root in today’s second Test at Old Trafford), then these are outright bad decisions by Smith and his panel, ones that should not be passed off with platitudes that insult our intelligence.

Prior to the first Test, Smith said: “The England team has batted with more consistency and solidity throughout the order and Joe Denly has been a big part of that.”

I repeat, Denly has scored no Test centuries, his average now standing at 29.53.

Smith went on: “When Covid-19 caused a suspension of cricket, Jos Buttler was the man in possession and has our full support as England’s wicketkeeper-batsman.”

I repeat, Buttler has scored one hundred in 42 Tests.

Perhaps England are working on the principle that if you keep picking someone for long enough they are bound to come right sooner or later.

During the course of my social media discharge (the former England cricket chief Hugh Morris was quite right, incidentally, when he said that Twitter is like giving machine guns to monkeys), I ventured that I could have picked three Yorkshire players alone who could have done a better job than Denly, and that’s intending no disrespect to Denly.

It is actually four players as I completely forgot about Dawid Malan, who has yet to play for the club and is on the way back from injury, to go with Jonny Bairstow, Gary Ballance and Tom Kohler-Cadmore.

Bairstow, in my opinion, is an obviously better batsman than Denly and also a better wicketkeeper-batsman than Buttler, while Ben Foakes is a better option than Buttler too.

I would back Ballance and Kohler-Cadmore to score more runs than Denly, and there are players from other counties who could do a superior job.

What interested me, however, as I watched the various responses come in to my ramblings, was the level of opprobrium that exists towards Ballance.

One respondent said: “If Ballance is the answer I have no idea what the question is. He’s had more goes at Test cricket than I’ve had hot dinners.”

At least it’s not just us journalists who are guilty of cliche, by the way...

Another snorted: “Ballance has had more comebacks than Take That.”

Ditto.

Someone else said: “I’m sorry but are you p*ssed? Ballance proven not good enough.”

As it happens, it was one of the few occasions when I was not completely blotto, but the point is that Ballance scores runs.

Indeed, only one England player at the Ageas Bowl (Ollie Pope) has a better Test average than his 37.45, and Pope is only at the start of his career.

Granted, Ballance might have struggled latterly, his technique ripped apart by former players and so on, but the main currency is runs and to completely write him off at the age of 30 seems unfair.

In 16 Tests batting at No 3, Ballance has scored 1,254 runs at 46.44 with four hundreds.

Food for thought, if nothing else.

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