Mark Ramprakash backs England's Alex Hales, Gary Ballance and James Vince
Wednesday 17 August 2016 15:27, UK
England batting coach Mark Ramprakash says Alex Hales, James Vince and Gary Ballance need time to adapt to Test cricket.
Opener Hales and batsmen Vince and Ballance struggled to make an impact in the 2-2 series draw with Pakistan.
England relied heavily on Alastair Cook, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali for runs in the series, and fast bowling all-rounder Chris Woakes (35.40) finished with a higher average than all three.
Ballance averaged 27.85, Vince 22.57 and Hales 18.12, the latter two lower than Steven Finn (24.00) in the final series averages.
The trio managed just two 50s between them in 22 innings.
There are questions marks against all three looking ahead to the winter tour of Bangladesh, with coach Trevor Bayliss admitting he has some "tough decisions" to make when it comes to picking the squad.
Ramprakash, speaking at a Professional Cricket Association fundraiser in Bromley, said the trio found it tough for a variety of reasons.
"Those players are again trying to make the step up to Test level and it's not an easy one to do," Ramprakash - who himself took time to score big runs in Tests in his playing days - told Sky Sports News HQ.
"Most players do take time to make that adjustment from playing county cricket to international cricket.
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"It can take time to make the adjustment, to get your game completely up to catch to compete at Test level."
Ramprakash also said that the Pakistan attack would be a severe examination of any inexperienced Test match batsman.
"Alex Hales was up against the new ball and a good pairing of Mohammad Amir and Rahat Ali. And later Sohail Khan came into the side and bowled very well.
"That new ball period was tough to negotiate and then of course if you did get through that you had the spin of Yasir Shah.
"Although we perhaps didn't play him as well as we would have liked at Lord's and he did well, we came back in Tests two and three and managed to play him.
"I think Pakistan had a varied attack - a good attack for Test conditions here. It was probably a fair result. It was a very entertaining series. Good for cricket."
