Gary Ballance to lead Yorkshire across all formats

England middle-order batsman Gary Ballance has been appointed the captain of the Yorkshire County Cricket Club across all formats. The left-hander had signed for the club way back in the 2008 summer and made his first-class debut in the same year against Kent.

He has appeared in 21 Tests for England, scoring 4 centuries in the process. Balance who is currently in India with the English team expressed his delight after his appointment and hoped to carry on from where his predecessors of the club left.

“It is an absolute honour to be named the Club Captain and to follow in the footsteps of some great captains over the years. I cannot wait to get started. When Andrew Gale called me, it was impossible to turn down. Being captain is something that I enjoy doing and hopefully, I will do a good job for Yorkshire and follow on from the good work that Galey (Andrew Gale) has done over the years,” Ballance said.

He hasn’t featured in the Playing XI for any of the Tests in the ongoing series against India after an indifferent tour of Bangladesh where he fared very poorly. Though he hasn’t been in the greatest of forms off late, he would look to lead his county club by example.

“I’m experienced now, I have played a bit of cricket over the years, so I have seen how different captains work. I think that I am a calm person and like to think that I have a decent cricket brain. I’m not a massive speaker, but I will be looking to lead by example on the field and get the lads to follow me.”

Andrew Gall, the coach of Yorkshire heaped praises on Ballance and stated that he had an astute cricketing brain to take Yorkshire forward in the upcoming years.

“I wanted to take my time when deciding who to appoint as new Club Captain and Gary (Ballance) is the right man to take the team forward. I am a firm believer in continuity and I am pleased that Gary will captain Yorkshire across all three formats. Gary is respected on and off the field, has a good cricket brain and knows the direction that we would like to take the team in. He has led from the front for many years with the bat and his experience speaks for itself,” Gale added.