Gary Ballance

A lynchpin of Yorkshire’s batting unit in red-ball cricket, Gary Ballance is a professional English cricketer for the England national team. The southpaw had success at the international level but he has failed to nail down a permanent spot in the English red-ball team.

The Harare-born cricketer arrived at the domestic circuit quite a way back in 2006 when he was at the tender age of 16. He made his List A debut against the West Indies A squad and showcased his composure with 72 balls 48 against a top-quality bowling attack. After proving his dominance for 6 years in the English domestic circuit, Ballance made his international debut in an ODI fixture against Ireland and a year later, played his debut Test against Australia in the Ashes. 

A two-time County Champion, Ballance skippered the White Rose for a season and a half in 2017-18 before quitting the game for a brief period of time due to stress and anxiety.  After recovering, he made a brilliant comeback scoring five centuries in as many matches and saving Yorkshire from relegation. The southpaw finished as the leading run-getter for Yorkshire in the Championship punishing the County attacks up and down the land. 

After becoming the third-fastest English batsman to reach 1000 Test runs in early 2015, he was sidelined from the squad on the back of a horrible Ashes series in 2017. At the age of 32, Ballance is in prime form but he hasn’t played international cricket in the last four years and his hopes of wearing the Three Lions remains still doubtful. 

(As of August 2021)