Burns’ slick footwork and strong mind can nail down opening role
Batsman has chance to seal Test spot this week Denly impresses during England’s T20 victory
When England play their two twoday practice games from tomorrow to Friday, they must find a new Test opening pair out of Rory Burns, Joe Denly and Keaton Jennings.
They will also have to pick two out of Jonny Bairstow, who has strained ankle ligaments, Jos Buttler, who had a bit of shocker behind the stumps in England’s 30run victory against Sri Lanka in the sole Twenty20 international, and the late call-up, Ben Foakes.
If Burns and Jennings had been pencilled in as the new Test pair, Denly did himself no harm by being man of the match in the T20 game through illustrating the composure befitting a 32-year-old.
Instead of opening the batting, as he had in his brief England career eight years ago, Denly opened the bowling and so steady were his legspinners – which are more like skiddy top-spinners – that he finished with four wickets for 19 runs, his best figures for England, Kent or Middlesex.
Denly’s composure was evident before then, however. Demoted to No7, he made a capable 20 off 17 balls – a better run-rate than Ben Stokes, if not Moeen Ali, whose 27 off 11 provided the main back-up to Jason Roy, who blasted a dazzling 69 off 36 deliveries in between being dropped four times.
Denly’s bowling, however, is not going to cut much mustard in the Test series.
His trajectory – plenty of overspin to pitch near the batsman’s toes and go under flailing bats – is suited to limited overs, as he showed by bowling both of Sri Lanka’s openers in the powerplay. He then came back for the final over, when Sri Lanka needed 39, and finished with the last two wickets, including Thisara Perera caught in the deep off a full toss.
Besides, in the Tests, England need look no further than Adil Rashid for wrist-spin.
Burns, therefore, will be given every chance to establish himself this week. Whatever happens on the turning pitches of Sri Lanka – and in their last home Test against South Africa they picked four spinners, two of whom opened the bowling, and one seamer – England need Burns to make a success of opening both in the next Test series in the West Indies and in next summer’s Ashes.
Already, to this end, Burns is demonstrating a fine combination of nimble footwork and strong mind. Of all the batsmen who tried, and failed, to be Alastair Cook’s opening partner after Andrew Strauss, Burns would appear to have the strongest, most balanced head, as you would like to expect of a 28-year-old who has led his county, Surrey, to the championship title and played three seasons alongside Sri Lanka’s finest batsman, Kumar Sangakkara.
“I had dinner with him [Sangakkara] a couple of nights ago but I think he might be working as a double agent these days,” Burns joked. “I’m not sure if he has his Surrey hat on or his Sri Lanka hat on.
“The last three years he had at Surrey, you couldn’t help but learn from him – the amount of balls he hit, how he hit, what he was trying to do, certain conversations off the field over a glass or two of something.”
Burns said that he had not been told if he would make the Test side; that, while becoming the most consistent run-scorer in the First Division, he has learned to cope with failure and not stew; and that he is used to having his idiosyncratic style analysed.
Above all, perhaps, he has a hinterland, having attended Cardiff University, which few of England’s other openers have had since the Strauss-cook era.