Careers in ashes: England can’t wait to run out of Australia
Whatever you might think about Rory Burns’ batting, you cannot but have felt a smidgen of pity as he trudged off the field, an opener run out for a duck for just the third time in Ashes history.
Former Australian captain and current broadcaster Ricky Ponting was scathing in his analysis.
“I want to make a bit of a point of this,” the former Australia captain said on Channel Seven.
“There had to be more desperation there from Rory Burns. He’s back into the side, fighting for his test career, and he’s not willing to put in a big dive to try and save his wicket.
“I know it’s not his fault, not his call. But you can imagine Marnus Labuschagne in that same situation, he would’ve been diving from two or three yards out from the crease.”
Labuschagne, arguably, had made more of an effort diving, in vain, for a ball colliding into the boundary rope just before than Burns had.
The enthusiasm, the effort, the will to win was all there among this Australia side, looking to make amends after their dreams of a 5-0 whitewash had been whipped from underneath them in the dying sessions of the Sydney test.
To an extent, you can understand the convergent moods. The series is long gone, the hammering has been public and harrowing and England’s men walking to the crease, each day, facing the same fate, are but human. On the flip side, however, there is so much to play for. Forget about the pride and the England badge, which so often gets churned out as a tired media line, but there are, as Ponting says, careers on the line.
Burns’s predicament is indicative of England’s issues with finding a settled opening partnership. Australia’s last wicket partnership has now outscored England’s first in this series.
Perhaps it is not all that surprising that Burns found himself called for a run that was touch and go at best.
The run was a tight call, and a fine margin. But that is what can launch or lampoon a cricketer’s career.
If Burns did not know that sooner, he must now.
The only difference being that he has got only one more innings to do something about it.