ASHES winner Gary Ballance has been advised to trust his technique having lost his Test place following a barren run of form.

Ballance has been back with Yorkshire since being left out of the third Test against Australia at Edgbaston late last month.

Since scoring 122, 77 and 81 not out in three of six innings during England’s early summer series in the West Indies, the left-hander only scored 134 in eight innings – four Tests – against New Zealand and Australia on home soil.

Despite an exceptional start to his Test career, the 25-year-old’s back foot technique has been heavily scrutinised, and criticised, by pundits.

However, since returning to Headingley, Ballance’s four-day captain Andrew Gale has told him to back his technique, not sack it.

"I've not spoken to him in depth about technique because it's not my place,” said Gale, who has seen Ballance score two one-day fifties in eight innings in that format and Championship cricket in recent weeks.

“All I've said is 'if you've got something that's worked for you, back it’.

"There are perhaps a few little alterations that he might make, but you ask any batter, they are always searching for the perfect formula.

"He can probably see himself as a little bit unlucky with the record that he's got to be dropped after a couple of Tests. But I'm sure he will come back stronger.

"He's got a couple of decent scores for us since he came back, so he obviously still backs that.”

Ballance has scored an impressive 1,194 runs from 15 Test matches with four hundreds, and he was the third fastest English batsman to reach 1,000 runs in only 17 innings.

Gale added: "He's got a technique that is quite unusual. I think he's one of those players that when he goes through a bad trot, his technique's always going to be scrutinised because of the way he gets his runs.

“He's not an Ian Bell or Adam Lyth or Jonny Bairstow, who are easy on the eye.

"Even when he's batting well, he makes ugly runs if you know what I mean, a bit like a Jonathan Trott.”