GARY Ballance will return to England's Test team against Pakistan at Lord's next week at number five in their batting order.

The Yorkshire batsman has been recalled by his country following a year away from the team, although he was a non-playing member of their tour party for South Africa over the winter.

Ballance scored a century in the County Championship defeat to Middlesex at Scarborough earlier this week, batting against new national team-mate Toby Roland-Jones.

He then received the call he wanted from England's national selector having beaten off competition for a place from Scott Borthwick of Durham.

Ballance revealed: "I was just doing a bit of grocery shopping when I got the call from James Whitaker – just a standard Thursday morning! It's all come as a bit of a surprise.

"Obviously it's a great feeling to be back in the squad, especially when you've been out of the side for a while. It was about this time last year when I got left out and it does feel like a long time ago.

"I still got in the squad for South Africa, so I've still been part of it, but I haven't played and obviously that's what you want to be doing.

"But that's how it goes. It's part and parcel of playing cricket. I've had some time away, the chance to work on my game, and I feel like I've got back to where I want to be."

Ballance has scored three hundreds in six first-class appearances at Lord's for club and country.

He scored his maiden Test ton there against Sri Lanka in 2014 before one against India at the venue later in the summer. He also scored a Championship century for Yorkshire at Lord's that year.

Ballance said: "Lord's holds great memories for me – but to be fair, for the majority of my Test career I've got great memories of it. I can draw from those experiences and hopefully they can stand me in good stead.

"It was mentioned to me that I'd be batting at five. To be honest, I've batted three, four and five and mixed around those positions for the last two years with Yorkshire and England, so genuinely I don't mind where I bat."

On his 132 against Middlesex and the call-up of Roland-Jones, the 26-year-old Yorkshire star added: "I've felt good the last few weeks.

"I've been playing well but just not got that big score that gets you noticed. But I was happy with the way I played there, especially getting a century and spending a long time in the middle.

"Middlesex have got a good attack, with Murtagh, Finn and Roland-Jones.

"Toby's been a quality bowler for the last few years for Middlesex – all of us who play in county cricket know how good a bowler he is – and obviously he's going to have good knowledge of bowling at Lord's. He thoroughly deserves his call-up."