It’s now kind to be cruel to Joe

AUSTRALIA has steadfastly held the line this summer it would be cruel to drop Joe Burns. Suddenly it seems cruel to play him.

Years after being dropped from Test teams players will occasionally reveal they were secretly relieved the agony was over.

You wonder whether poor Burns might feel this way if, as seems likely, he loses his place to David Warner (if fit) or Marcus Harris for the third Test against India after his agonised innings of four yesterday brought his summer’s return to 125 runs from 11 innings.

Australia has doggedly stood by Burns this series in a bid to show what loyalty really means but the tension of trying to snatch at form which simply isn’t there has overwhelmed him.

Burns’ did manage a second innings half century in Adelaide and in some way Australia’s loyalty to him was admirable. But as the slump deepens Australia must now heed the message that while loyalty is great, defying such poor form is like trying to defy gravity.

There are few things in sporting life more uncomfortable to look at than a Test batsman so out of form.

Burns would have known he was batting for his career on Monday and the tension was palpable and you could sense there was enormous goodwill and encouragement for him from the crowd.

He had three of the closest shaves imaginable and somehow escaped … only to make four.

When Burns got off the mark he had to dive and a direct hit from Ravi Ashwin would have claimed him for a pair. Soon after he was struck on the toe by Jasprit Bumrah but escaped an lbw shout on an umpire’s call and then weathered a shy at the stumps after leaving his crease.

Then came the dismissal to an away seamer from Udesh Yadav which he feathered behind, the eighth time this summer he has fallen this way.