Nasser and co were going on about that in the break. You can only assume they have no intention of playing him and want the others to get some first class game time, which is fine until Moeen goes over in the warm-up and they roll out an unexpected bunsen at HQ.
Maybe Ballance will be like Bairstow. He was dismissed for ages, but piled them on in the championship and now he's one of the best batsmen around. Maybe.