CAPTAIN Steve Patterson has hailed predecessor Gary Ballance’s impressive return to the game, describing the former skipper as a major asset to Yorkshire.

Ballance missed approximately three weeks of cricket in May due to fatigue like symptoms, and he also stepped away from the captaincy on a permanent basis.

But the England fringe left-hander has returned to batting in impressive fashion.

His comeback game was a Royal London One-Day Cup clash with Leicestershire at Grace Road when he was not required to bat in a big win.

Since then, he has posted scores of 27, 38, 66, 91, 25, 109, 21, 54, 15, 0 and 79 across all formats - the last of those coming in Sunday's Vitality Blast defeat against Birmingham Bears at Edgbaston.

“We’ve known for years how good Gary is as a player and how consistent he is,” said seamer Patterson.

“He’s had a tough time earlier in the summer, and the captaincy was weighing on him a bit. But I’m happy for him that he can now go out and play with that freedom and not have anything other than batting on his mind.

“It’s shown how good he can be when we get him full of confidence and relaxed.

“He’s been an asset to us for a number of years, and he will be for a long time to come.”

Patterson continued: “He’s got the capability to do anything he wants in the game. He’s that good a player.

“He can play every shot in the book and reads the game very well. He showed that on Sunday.

“He’s one of those who you’d far rather have on your team than play against him.”

Although Ballance has stepped away from the captaincy, he said after scoring a Championship century against Hampshire at the Ageas Bowl that he still wanted to take a senior role in the Yorkshire side, be it helping young players or offering advice to Patterson.

“Gary will always help me out,” added the skipper.

“He’s got a very good cricket brain and understands how the game goes. He’ll always be there to offer views and opinions.

“Hopefully him not having to make those decisions and it being in the back of his mind will just free him up a bit and allow to keep playing as he has done of late.

“If he does that consistently, we’ll win a lot more games than we lose.”

Ballance's 79 off 49 balls was a high point of Sunday's defeat in which the Vikings lost three wickets inside five overs and were fighting an uphill battle on the way to a score of 157-7.

The Bears thrashed Matthew Fisher for 33 off the first over of the chase, and they won with 25 balls to spare.

All-rounder Jack Brooks said: "We lost three wickets in the powerplay when we batted and then in the rebuilding process lost a couple more and couldn't get going to get a big score.

"In the end we dribbled to a score from which you have got to bowl really well or they have got to have a shocker if you are going to win the game.

"But the way they came out they had put the game to bed almost before the innings got going.

"We've told Matt (Fisher) that in Twenty20 cricket you get freak overs sometimes and some really good bowlers have gone for more than he did in that over - Stuart Brod went for 36 once. "We said not to get too down about it and laugh it off because we all know what a good cricketer he is."