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Given the chance, can Joe Burns fire?

Roar Rookie
16th December, 2014
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Joe needs a big one day tournament to stay in the selectors' minds. (AAP Image/Lincoln Baker)
Roar Rookie
16th December, 2014
32

Joe Burns is one of the most promising young batsmen in Australia, but he doesn’t get talked about enough. He’s not been earmarked and branded.

Burns is young, highly talented, and one of our best and brightest. So it’s time to take him out of the rough paddock and point him along the lighted path.

The issue here is my beloved Australian team being in need of some young blood. A number of the senior bats will probably make way over the next 18 months, if not prior to the next Ashes. So here’s an opportunity to showcase Smokin’ Joe.

Burns already won the Bradman Award for best young cricketer aged under 23 and has been leading runs-scorer for Queensland for the past few seasons. So far this summer he’s averaging 54.5 with a top score of 183. He has a first-class average of over 42, with seven centuries, and he’s only 25 years old so can be expected to improve.

He’s completed stints with Leicestershire and at the Centre of Excellence during the past winters and followed that up with selection for the Australia A tour of England last year. So the selectors are at least aware that he exists, ok, hopefully that means he’s earmarked somewhat.

The Steve Smith appointment showed good long-term judgment from the selectors. Burns could benefit from that same sort of thinking. We sure as hell don’t need to be blooding any more so called ‘all rounders’ – they’re called ‘batsmen’, selectors!

But just quietly, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. Maybe Joe could roll down some mongrel spinners a la Glenn Maxwell.

Whoever is doing Burn’s PR needs to step it up because he should be talked about for higher honours more than some of the names being bandied about. In a time where we only have two or three bankable bats and a surplus of contributors, we need to be bolstering our batting stocks.

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While his PR team are at it, they should look at tidying Joe up a bit – his cricinfo and Cricket Australia pics which are not going to sell many cans of deodorant or shaving gear. Take him out of the rough paddock and set this young man along the path to the Test team’s middle order.

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