It was skittish. It was stilted. It was, at times, quite ugly. Joe Burns won’t care a jot, though.
The 58 next to his name is all that matters and may free him of the nerves which have hampered him over his first two Tests.
FOLLOW SCORES FROM DAY 3 OF THE CRICKET IN SYDNEY HERE
The story out of domestic cricket is that the rookie Australian batsman is notoriously edgy while he waits to bat. He has carried that anxiousness with him to the crease during his brief international career.
Similar to the last specialist batsman blooded in Tests for Australia, Alex Doolan, the pressure seem to have shackled Burns.
While donning the baggy green, Doolan never attained the fluency he often displays for Tasmania. Typically, he was stiff and unnatural in his play. Just once in Doolan’s eight Test innings did he look relaxed, and even then it was only during the latter part of his knock of 89 against South Africa on debut.
From that point on, Doolan made just 75 runs at an average of 12. Underlining his laboured efforts is the fact he faced 250 balls to make those runs.
Before he could manage to find a modicum of ease at Test level, Doolan was jettisoned. We never got to see what he could have produced in a calm and assured state.
Burns remains in that same uncomfortable phase. The Australian selectors can be impatient with fresh faces so hopefully yesterday’s 58 will imbue him with the kind of confidence that will see him play in a more natural fashion.
At the start of his dig, Burns’ feet were heavy and he was playing the Indian spinners as though the SCG was a dusty Delhi deck. With Shaun Marsh struggling similarly at the other end, that pair went into lunch with a partnership of 5 from 33 balls. After 17 deliveries, Burns was yet to get off the mark.
First ball of the second session, he again stayed glued to the crease to defend an Ashwin delivery. With the parched SCG pitch beginning to allow the ball to turn reasonably and leap occasionally, the Indian spinners would have been delighted with Burns’ cautious, stay-at-home approach.
Perhaps sensing that he was vulnerable as a static target, Burns changed his method the next delivery. He skipped down the track, reached the pitch and drove against the turn through cover for four. Showing even more aggression, Burns followed that shot by again advancing and lofting the ball over midwicket.
He didn’t get all of it but it didn’t matter. Those consecutive displays of positive intent prompted Indian skipper Virat Kohli to implement a less attacking field. After building steadily on Burns, the pressure had been released.
On 22 we caught another glimpse of Burns’ dynamism. Bhuvneshwar Kumar sent down a respectable delivery on a length just outside off stump. The rookie Australian has shown at domestic level that he is a quick judge of length. Kumar’s offering was not short but Burns leant back so quickly he was able to unfurl his trademark pull shot, sending the ball zooming to the rope.
Soon after, he wielded another of his favourite strokes, the sweep, to collect one more boundary. After being stuck on nought for so long, he had then crunched 30 from just 40 balls, including five boundaries.
Rather than freeing him up, Burns soon found himself bogged deeply once more. A sequence of 22 deliveries came and went without a scoring stroke.
It is at this point that most batsmen, let alone rookies, slam their fist into the panic button and conjure their demise with a rash stroke. Amid his seeming bout of anxiety, Burns protected his wicket and soon rediscovered some momentum. First he drove, then he pulled, and finally he lofted to register three boundaries in the space of six deliveries.
When finally he fell for 58 Australia had patently moved into dash-towards-a-declaration mode and the youngster’s attempted slog lobbed into the mitts of long on. But the manner in which Burns endured two periods of struggle was salient.
The 25-year-old is a noted fast starter – he likes to assert his authority early in his digs before settling into a gentler rhythm. Here he was not allowed such a luxury.
The selectors will have been impressed with the way in which he batted against type. They saw in the Shield innings which likely earned him his Test spot that he prefers the David Warner method of spreading the field from the get go and then exploiting gaps.
Selector Mark Waugh was in the stands when Burns crashed 183 against a Test-standard New South Wales attack at the Gabba in mid-November.
NSW boasted Nathan Lyon, Steve O’Keefe, Doug Bollinger, Gurinder Sandhu and Sean Abbott. Burns motored to 52 from just 46 balls, lashing five fours and a six.
Having put NSW on the back foot and forced them into more defensive fields, he was then content to cruise. His following 131 runs came from 209 balls as he demoralised the Blues’ bowlers and left a strong impression on Waugh.
Burns has one more Test innings this summer to turn Waugh and his fellow selectors into true believers.
QuitWhinging
Guest
the selection of Agar to join the team for the 4th test makes me think he may go to the West Indies and the Ashes 2nd spinner
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
People just dislike Watson personally, so he's held to a different standard. The same as Quade Cooper. Chris Rogers is a likable guy though. So good on him!
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
So it sorts itself out with 2 batsman with inferior FC records and one of them a bowling all-rounder who is yet to take a test wicket? Shane Watson has 4 centuries and 56 tests and that's considered inadequate, but Mitch Marsh with 2 centuries in 43 FC games is considered a better replacement? Clearly you just hate Watson, without looking at rational, performance based reasons.
The Runt
Guest
Actually the bowling figures mentioned above are better than any of the seamers on the field inthe first test for Australia, it also must be remembered that Faulkner was in most part in a pretty hot bowling attack with Tassy. .
VivGilchrist
Guest
Hard to judge when you consider flat tracks and a pop-gun attack.
Robbo
Guest
Burns has looked OK, but his fielding? I don't understand what is wrong with our cricket system, with all the coaches, centres of excellence etc, yet our young first class cricketers can barely pick the ball up let alone catch it! Burns is 25, he's not a junior, so why isn't he a gun in the field? We really need to do something soon, because our first class fielding standards in my view are going backwards.
Nudge
Guest
First ashes test Rogers Warner Watson Smith Clarke Burns ? Haddin Johnson Pattinson ? Harris Lyon Reserves- Cummins, Mitch Marsh, Neville, Starc, Cowan. If a spare spinner O'keefe but I reckon the selectors are done with him, so I'll say Boyce
shiftyxr
Guest
Rogers Warner Smith S Marsh Clarke M Marsh Top 6 sorts itself out with no Watson, Burns to return as an opener after the Ashes.
shiftyxr
Guest
I'd take Burns and My Marsh than Watson and Burns. We already know what we're going to get with Watson and it's not much.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
I said: "It may be that neither Burns nor Mitch Marsh can fit in the team for the Windies tour". I'd expect both Burns and Mitch Marsh to be in the squad but maybe not in the team.
JMW
Guest
My point was that we are satisfied with Rogers making 50s, rightfully so; but we slaughter Watto for making 80 and a heap of 90s. It doesn't seem fair or balanced to me. We're winning and they're all doing a job as far as I'm concerned. Maybe that wasn't clear enough.
JMW
Guest
That is a very good point. I forget how effective a player Catfish has been. I don't recall him disgracing himself in ODIs but his first class record is very compelling. Presumably he didn't bat high enough or bowl quick enough for the NSP. That doesn't mean they got that one right either.
QuitWhinging
Guest
So your taking 11 players on the West Indies tour? Burns will go on tour and so will Mitch Marsh assuming he's fit and since it's so close to the ashes I'll also guess they'll be a few spare batsmen/ bowlers to try and force their way in .
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Good post JohnB. Hopes is a wonderfully consistent yet very underrated first class player. Were he 5 years younger he'd be right in the mix for Test selection but at 36yo his time has definitely passed. For a long time he was an accurate and dependable but fairly innocuous fifth bowler for QLD. But over the past 4-5 years he has become a potent bowler.
JohnB
Guest
You could make an argument that it's actually James Hopes who's been the most valuable Shield cricketer in the last few years. Faulkner is hurt by the fact he's played very little Shield cricket since 2012/13 (when he had the third of 3 successive very good seasons as a bowling all-rounder), but the figures will tell you that in Shield games from 2010/11 onwards, Hopes and Faulkner have played the same number of games (34) and the same number of innings (53 - 7 not outs for Faulkner, 2 for Hopes) with Hopes having made a lot more runs and fifties at a better average - 1857 @ 36.41 with 17 fifties, against 1417 @ 30.8 with 10. Bowling wise they've been very close to each other overall - Hopes 128 wickets @ 22.61 with 8 x 5-fors, Faulkner 123 @ 22.4 with 4 x 5-fors. To me, the performance of each is way ahead of that of the alternatives who have played Test cricket (or in Faulkner's case, more Test cricket) but I don't think Hopes gets in because if nothing else his time has passed. In any case, like Faulkner, he's not close to being in the top 4 bowlers and that's who you have to pick for Tests. If Faulkner improves his batting, great. He could then be close enough to a tie for 6th best batsman to get in a Test team, while providing the extra half a bowler a good Test side needs (and generally it's only 4.5 bowlers a team needs, not 5, which is why batting all rounders trump bowling all rounders). Until then, great limited overs player but not a Test player.
carnivean
Roar Rookie
Abbott has played T20 and ODI cricket for Australia already.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
I am not against Mitch Marsh and Watson playing in the same side but think Watto is very fortunate to have saved his bacon making cheap runs this Test after really struggling when it mattered in first three Tests. There is no way he'll be dropped now so then it becomes a straight choice between Burns and Marsh. Unless Burns does something remarkable in the second dig I'd have to go with Mitch Marsh as he was so impressive in tough circumstances in UAE and then started well at Adelaide. But of course Australia also have Clarke to come back so it may be that neither Burns nor Mitch Marsh can fit in the team for the Windies tour, with Watto and Shaun Marsh holding their spots.
Rob JM
Guest
Plenty of cricket between now and the West indies tests to prove your form. Its feels like a long time since in form batsman were competing for limited spots.
Matt
Roar Rookie
Ronan, in your mind does perseverance with Burns extend to the point of keeping out a fit Mitch Marsh? Marsh has been good since his call-up but you could argue that with Watson bowling more and more overs (and reasonably well) we could use another genuine bat in the order.
Matt
Roar Rookie
Ask India if they'd take Sandhu on a loan and they'd bite your hand off. Bollinger and O'Keefe have played international cricket and I would bet Abbott is only a few years away from it. I'm not from NSW but this blue-bagger conspiracy is ludicrous. For every NSW player who doesn't deserve his call-up I could name you a couple from other states who are similarly controversial.