England's Gary Ballance and Chris Jordan keen to focus on Ashes
Wednesday 20 May 2015 12:31, UK
England players Gary Ballance and Chris Jordan have admitted off-field distractions have not helped their preparations for the Ashes.
Peter Moores was sacked as head coach following the appointment of new director of cricket Andrew Strauss.
Strauss then ruled out any prospect of an immediate recall for Kevin Pietersen – prompting Pietersen to accuse the ECB of being “deceitful”.
England face New Zealand in two Tests, starting on Thursday, before the five-match Ashes series in July.
And Balance says the side are keen to move on from a turbulent winter.
He said: "There's a lot gone on in the last few weeks. As players we try to stay away from that and just focus on playing.
"I worked well with Mooresy, he got me into that number three (position) and helped me there.
"But it's how sport is, we've got to move on from that. There's a few changes now but we've got to concentrate on performing on the field and winning some games."
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Jordan also expressed sympathy for the departed Moores, saying: "It's never nice when someone loses their job, and obviously someone who you actually built a very good relationship with as well, but I guess as professionals that's part and parcel of what we do.
"We need to move on as quickly as we can because in two days' time we have a very good opposition in New Zealand to deal with."
Ballance added: "It's a pretty exciting few days' build-up to the New Zealand Test series, the first Test at Lord's is always a big occasion.
"All the players are looking forward to it and hopefully we can start performing on the field and the cricket can take care of itself."
