Gary Ballance confesses undergoing mental struggle after being axed

Gary Ballance in action for Yorkshire

Gary Ballance has admitted that losing his place in the side led to intensely painful reflections and he felt he had to stop listening to his critics who were 'jumping on the bandwagon' in criticising his technique.

Ballance was dropped after the 2nd Test in the 2015 Ashes series when he was going through sustained lean patch during which he had managed to score only one half-century in ten innings. His critics and many commentators had then criticised his technique saying that it was his tendency of staying back in the crease that spelt doom for him.

"It is never nice losing your place and to be honest, it was tough," he said. "For a while I was struggling mentally and normally I consider myself quite strong in that respect. I was just going through a tough patch. I was struggling for form - you tell me a cricketer that hasn't.

"As far as I was concerned, it was just one of those things but because my technique is a little different to a standard person people like to comment. That's fair enough - people have got a job to do and that's fine with me.

"But you have to be quite strong as a professional to block these things out, especially when people start jumping on the bandwagon."

Ballance had insisted last summer that he would never change his technique because it had brought him so much success. Even when he was axed from the team, he had a remarkable Test average of 47.76. He has made slight adjustments since then though his core technique has remained unchanged.

"There are always little things that I can do and that's what I've done, I've changed little things are worked on little things but the core is still there," he said. "As long as I know when I'm at the crease I am balanced and with a good head position, I'll be able to move forward and back as needed.

"When you are going through a bit of bad form you are always looking at little things, what is going wrong, what you have done right in the past. I just tried to look at how I was playing a few months before that in the West Indies.

"I've had the same technique throughout my career and I'm pretty happy with the way my stats have been in Test cricket and first-class cricket. I know what works for me and I know when I score runs what I do well."

Ballance said that he was extremely grateful to the team-mates and the coaching staff at Headingley who had encouraged him immensely during the bad times.

"Everyone around the club was very good," he said. "The players were very welcoming at having me back in the side. There are guys who know what it is like to lose your place, who have been in and out of international cricket and know how to deal with people who it has happened to.

"It's nice to come back into a side that was winning and playing good cricket, that always helps.

"I got a few decent scores, a big hundred at Sussex and a few other 50s so I was pretty happy with the way it went. And at the end of the day we won the Championship, and team success always breeds individual success."

His recent form has been splendid with two centuries in a two-day friendly against Lancashire in Dubai and against MCC in Abu Dhabi.

"I feel good," he said. "I've started well, went to the UAE and got a few hundreds there, I could not have asked for a better pre-season."

And the untimely retirement of James Taylor might earn Ballance a re-call to the national side. Ballance had to sit out during their tour to South Africa as Taylor occupied the No. 5 slot. Ballance might be back in the Test team now for England's first home series this summer against Sri Lanka.

But Ballance insists that he is not thinking too far ahead and is remaining focussed on the Championship instead.

"I'm really not looking very far ahead," he said. "I just want to get back to playing for Yorkshire and scoring runs. If I can do that, everything else will take care of itself."

His biggest inspiration remains Joe Root who was dropped from the team for his poor form after 2013-14 Ashes whitewash.

"All sportsmen have their ups and downs and the ones that come back stronger are the ones that go on to have a good career," he said. "Joe is a good example of that."