BATTLING BURNS FIRST CHOICE TO FILL THE GAP
ALASTAIR COOK will bow out after the last Test against India at the Oval this week following an outstanding career. But it leaves a big question — who will fill his shoes as England move on without their most prolific batsman? Here, former England captain Nasser Hussain looks at two of the leading candidates:
JOE DENLY
DENLY has been around a while, and at 32 only averages 36 in first-class cricket, but in the last couple of years he has done pretty well on some dodgy pitches at Kent. And a similar average did not stop Michael Vaughan excelling at the top level. Denly has worked out his game in the last couple of years and has gained confidence by going around the world in various Twenty20 leagues. His technique is simple — back and across — and he can be opened up outside off stump but he is good against fast bowling and is quick to pull or hook. In one-day cricket he is comfortable against spin and happy to use his feet and slogsweep — useful in Sri Lanka this winter. It also helps that he’s right-handed because England have had too many lefties of late. If Keaton Jennings is going to tour then it would be handy if the man alongside him is righthanded and there’s a suggestion England have asked Kent to bat Denly (above) as high as possible. Ed Smith knows him from his days at Canterbury and clearly the national selector is a fan. I thought Denly’s name might come up in white-ball cricket, and, I have to be honest, he hasn’t been on my radar in red but Smith has seen something he likes. His improved leg-spin has drawn Smith’s attention, too, but there is a difference between bowling at county level and being England’s second or even third spinner in Colombo.
RORY BURNS
THE Surrey captain became the first man to reach 1,000 Championship runs this season in his 90 against Essex yesterday and he has consistently churned out big runs over recent years. While Denly is elegant, Burns is unorthodox but he has changed. From being a leg-side player, shovelling the ball, and being vulnerable to lbw or being bowled, he has developed this little tic, moving his neck towards mid-on as the bowler runs in. That is to try to get his head going towards the leg side rather than the off, falling over and playing around it. It seems to work and he is hitting more deliveries back past the bowler but there are a lot of moving parts in his technique. When he’s in synch he will make runs but I do fear that if things don’t work out at international level we so-called
experts on TV might have a field day pulling his game to pieces. He will have to be mentally strong enough to cope with the flak if things don’t work out. That will be Burns’s biggest challenge but you cannot fault him for runscoring and, as Cook, the man he may replace, showed, it’s not always about how you look.
NASSER’S VERDICT
BURNS must think it’s his turn but Denly is getting runs on spicy pitches. The weight of First Division runs from Burns mean he will be right to feel hard done by if he is ignored. I would go for the Surrey man.