Yet not only has Ballance shown Trott’s appetite for staying at the crease, he has demonstrated a capacity to change his tempo, in contrast to Trott’s steady, self-contained drum beat.Īll this he has managed while confounding those – this writer included – who saw only technical flaws. When ill-health forced Trott home from Australia last winter, and, effectively, out of international cricket for good, he was viewed as virtually irreplaceable. In the space of eight Tests, Ballance has made himself an integral part of the new England, in the manner that five years ago – on this ground, in the final Test of the Ashes summer – Jonathan Trott had begun to do with his debut century. It was a perfect statement, a punctuation mark on the end of the session – for not only did it bring the scores level, with England a single wicket down, but it emphatically underlined the position of strength they had already established. But Gary Ballance pushed his front leg forwards, and a steam-hammer bottom hand powered the ball to the extra-cover boundary. The batsman would not take the bait, surely, content to push it back and set off for the pavilion. Ravichandran Ashwin, in his fourth over of the innings, tossed the ball higher, seeking the second wicket of the morning.
The game is not that easy.īut the loudest applause followed the final ball of the first session. Then came a groan, and a smattering of low-key applause. A roar of approval when Alastair Cook was facing? Had to be a cut or a pull (wouldn’t be much else), probably the latter: sure enough, a swivel and four runs through midwicket. T here was a brief diversionary game to be played before lunch, a sort of version of “What happened next?” There is a television in the press dining room, but the picture has a delay, so the crowd noise from outside arrives a few seconds before the action is viewed.
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