Gary Ballance second player after Kepler Wessels (Australia and South Africa) to score centuries for two Test nations; Ballance scores unbeaten 137 on Zimbabwe Test debut after hitting four hundreds for England across 23 Tests between 2013 and 2017
Tuesday 7 February 2023 15:27, UK
Former England batter Gary Ballance scored a century on his Zimbabwe Test debut as he became the second player, after Kepler Wessels, to score Test tons for two different countries.
Ballance, 33, hit an unbeaten 137 on day four of the first Test against West Indies in Bulawayo.
Wessels scored Test hundreds for Australia and South Africa.
Ballance played 23 Tests for England between 2013 and 2017, scoring 1,498 runs with four hundreds and seven half-centuries.
The left-hander signed a two-year deal to play for his native Zimbabwe late last year after being released from Yorkshire and featured in one T20 international and two one-day internationals against Ireland in January.
In November 2021, Ballance admitted using racist language towards his former Yorkshire team-mate Azeem Rafiq, whose allegations of racism during his time at the Headingley club rocked cricket.
Rafiq has accepted an apology from Ballance, who was one of seven individuals charged by the England and Wales Cricket Board in June last year.
The others charged were Matthew Hoggard, Tim Bresnan, Andrew Gale, John Blain, Richard Pyrah and Michael Vaughan.
Hoggard, Bresnan, Gale, Blain and Pyrah have withdrawn their co-operation from the disciplinary process, with a hearing to be held in public in London between March 1-9.
That means Vaughan is the only charged individual set to appear at the Cricket Discipline Commission hearing next month, with Ballance not participating having admitted his charge.
