Former England player Gary Ballance named as a consultant coach for Zimbabwe

New Delhi [India] May 6 (ANI): Former England and Zimbabwe batter Gary Ballance has been included in the coaching staff for Zimbabwe's forthcoming tour of England, as per ESPN Cric info.
Ballance, who dedicated over a decade to playing county cricket with Yorkshire, will serve as a coaching consultant for the solitary Test at Trent Bridge beginning on May 22.
After making his Test debut during the 2013-14 Ashes tour, Ballance became the third-fastest England player to reach 1000 Test runs, achieving this in just 17 innings (a record that has since been matched by Harry Brook).
However, his performance declined significantly, and he did not represent his adopted country again after 2017.
Ballance played 23 Tests for England and subsequently opted to represent Zimbabwe, the country of his birth, playing one Test, five ODIs, and one T20I in 2023 before retiring.
In 2023, while playing his first Test for Zimbabwe, Ballance became only the second player to score a hundred in the longest format of the game for two different countries. He followed former South Africa and Australia international Keppler Wessels in the unique club.
The 35-year-old called time on his international career back in 2023.
Ballance will join a Zimbabwe dressing room in high spirits on the back of a competitive display in the recent Test series in Bangladesh.
Givemore Makoni, Zimbabwe Cricket's managing director, welcomed Gary Ballance and said. We are thrilled to welcome Gary Ballance to our coaching set-up for this historic tour. His deep understanding of English conditions, gained over years of playing at the highest level, will be a valuable asset to our team's tactical preparation," he added. (ANI)