England bowler Stuart Broad has backed Gary Ballance to enjoy a stellar Test career despite being dropped midway through this summer's Ashes series.
Ballance hit 60 runs in his opening innings against Australia, but subsequent scores of 0, 23 and 14 in his next three outings saw him dropped for the third Test, with Jonny Bairstow being brought in as his replacement.
Ballance played no further part in the series as England went on to regain the urn with a 3-2 victory, but Broad insists that the Zimbabwe-born batsman still has a big part to play for the national team in the future.
"A player who I think has an incredible Test career ahead of him is Gary Ballance. I know he missed out after Lord's but let's not forget he still averages 48 in Test match cricket and has been young batsman of the year," he told reporters.
"He has a temperament which is very much suited to maybe the old style of Test cricket, but he does not want to give his wicket away, he will bat for you all day. At times we forget he has never batted three in his life, he bats at number five. He was asked to bat at number three for England and came to average 60 and did incredibly well.
"As every cricketer I have ever known, he had a bit of a tough period for five or six Test matches, missed out and so missed an incredible part of the summer, but he will at some stage come back into this England Test team to have a huge amount of success, and I can see someone like him being like the rock of the English batting lineup for many years to come."
Broad himself has moved up to second in the world bowling rankings following his displays in the victorious Ashes series.
Barney Corkhill
