Alice Springs: With Jonathan Trott gone back home due to stress related deperession, a fine half century may help Gary Balance make a Test debut in Adelaide next week.
It was clear that England rated Ballance as the best bet to step into Jonathan Trott's middle-order shoes for the second Test when they gave him the chance to bat ahead of the other candidates in Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow yesterday.
Ballance, 24, who had made just four runs in three innings for England before yesterday, has a formidable record with Yorkshire. He averaged more than 50 on tour in Australia with the Lions last year — admittedly in one-day cricket — but he is far from the finished article and would represent a gamble next week.
Yet England are short of options and it seems that Zimbabwe-born Ballance will miss out only if the Adelaide drop-in wicket is so flat that England deem it necessary to go with a second spinner in Monty Panesar and promote Stokes to six.
Stokes played perhaps the most fluent innings for England yesterday before falling to an excellent short-leg catch and is clearly a player for England's future.
It is simply a case of whether he, and indeed Ballance, are mature enough to feature in England's turbulent present in a Test they cannot afford to lose
