‘Really struggling’: Rory Burns’ sad remark after latest Ashes mishap
On Saturday afternoon, a handful of spectators crowded around the Adelaide Oval nets watching England’s cricketers prepare for day three of the pink-ball Test.
Fox Sports News reporter Josh Bristow recounted the moment a young lad watching from the sidewalk innocently asked opening batter Rory Burns: “Do you like cricket?”
Burns replied: “Sometimes mate.”
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It’s been a tough couple of weeks for the 31-year-old – he became national a laughing stock when Australian quick Mitchell Starc bowled him around his legs for the first delivery of the Ashes.
One ball into the series, Burns had cemented his place in cricket folklore – his Gabba gaffe will be talked about in pubs and changerooms for decades to come.
Opening partner Haseeb Hameed faced the first ball of the second innings, presumably because Burns was still scarred by what had occurred two days earlier – it was only the third time in his Test career he was not on strike for the opening delivery of an innings.
The ploy backfired, with Australian captain Pat Cummins dismissing him for 13 as England suffered a nine-wicket defeat in Brisbane.
Burns was confronted with a considerably more challenging task on Friday evening – facing Australia’s pace attack under artificial lights with the pink Kookaburra.
On this occasion, Starc needed three deliveries to send Burns packing, squaring up the left-hander with a ball that nipped away off the deck – stand-in skipper Steve Smith made no mistakes at second slip.
“These England openers are a sorry sight,” cricket commentator David Lloyd wrote in the Daily Mail. “They are a walking wicket I’m afraid.”
Burns is currently averaging 5.66 against Australia this series – last week, he broke the record for most Test ducks by an English opener in a calendar year with six. To make matters worse, his fielding has been woeful throughout the opening two Test matches.
Former England captain Michael Atherton suggested Burns’ technique was being exposed by Starc, who has now removed the left-hander twice in 15 deliveries this summer.
“The issue for Rory is he has a lot of moving parts in his game,” he said.
“There is a technique and it’s a technique that’s gotten him a lot of success, but there’s a lot of moving parts and particularly for a bowler like Starc who pushes it very full and straight, all those moving parts have got to be in sync.
“When Starc is bowling at 145km/h, that makes it more difficult.
“It’s not a good start, he’s got a second innings and he’s going to have to be extremely mentally tough … he’s under pressure, there’s no question.”
Former England opener Nick Knight, who played 13 Ashes Tests on Australian soil, also believed Burns’ spot in the side was in jeopardy.
“He has got a lot of work to do, and he‘ll be feeling under pressure,” he told Sky Sports News.
“I don‘t know whether he listens to the news and social media, but there will be a bit of pressure on his place, I’m sure. He’s the type of character that can absorb all that and move on.
“Having been in this position myself on a number of occasions, I don‘t want selectors to go back to the late 90s or early 2000s, where if you had a few bad scores or a few bad games then they’d look to try somebody else. Doing that becomes a bit of a revolving door.”
Former England captain Alastair Cook suggested that Burns should consider tinkering with his technique, but warned doing so could disrupt his concentration.
“He needs to really think about how he gets that bat playing coming down straighter,” he told BT Sport.
“The perfect Mitchell Starc angle, to hit that ball perfectly with it coming away and his bat coming across, your timing has to be absolutely spot on.
”If it‘s not spot on, the face of your bat is slightly closed as you come to hit it. He now has to decide what he’s going to do because Mitchell Starc – for the next five Test matches – if he stays fit, it’s almost the perfect combination against him.
“The problem is tinkering with your technique in the middle of a massive series, you‘re then batting in a game maybe thinking about technique is not what you want to be doing. The only thing you want to be doing is committing or watching the ball as it’s coming down. You’ve got to keep your mind as clear as you can.”