Ian Botham wants England to drop Gary Ballance after Trent Bridge 'debacle'

Former English all rounder and Sky Sports commentator, Ian Botham, went ahead to state that England should drop Gary Ballance to recover from the Trent Bridge ‘debacle’. Citing his technical flaws, Botham criticised Ballance for not showing any improvement since the time he was picked for England. The former English great also cited out the difference between County cricket and International cricket.

Prior to the start of England-South Africa Test series, Michael Vaughan revealed his reservations regarding Ballance batting at number 3, ahead of Joe Root. Vaughan claimed that scoring for Yorkshire in County Cricket and playing against the likes of Philander, Morkel and Rabada. Botham recently validated the same point stated by his compatriot Vaughan, citing his technical drawback of getting trapped in the crease.

Botham validates point made by Vaughan earlier

“It was a debacle, the second innings was so ordinary.It’s England’s biggest defeat on this ground, an absolute hammering. Where do you go from that? They’ve clearly got plenty of things to work on. The selections have been a bit iffy. Gary is a lovely lad, a great guy, but his recent performances have not been good enough and it worries me that he still gets trapped on the crease.” commented Ian Botham according to an interview with Sky Sports.

“It also shows the gap between county and international cricket for me, You might score 1,000 runs playing for Yorkshire but it’s a bit different story against [Morne] Morkel, Philander and [Chris] Morris.This is no fault of Gary’s but I see no difference in his game from the first or second time he was picked. I think it’s time to move on.” added Botham. “The team looked sorry for themselves, you can’t do that in international cricket, There will be some hard talking up there in the dressing room. They clearly don’t want to panic but it’s a shocking defeat.” concluded the 61-year-old