'He's In A Terrible Run Of Form'- Allan Border Against Joe Burns' Inclusion In The Australian Squad For The First Test Against India

With Australian opener, Joe Burns not seeing the light at the end of a dark tunnel, former Australian captain Allan Border urges the hosts not to play him in the first Test of the home summer. Joe Burns’ poor form with the bat continued in the second innings of the final warm-up game against India in Sydney as he perished for a single after surviving for 21 balls. He backed it up with a two-ball duck in the first innings.

But Joe Burns could end up retaining his spot for the first Test, considering Australia has a shortage of specialist opening batsmen. The duo of David Warner and Will Pucovski has been sidelined due to injuries while the selectors have refused to blood Shaun Marsh or Usman Khawaja too. Thus, Australia might have no choice but to go ahead with the Queensland opener.

Allan Border described Joe Burns’ technique as ‘shot’ and felt abysmal to see a batsman struggling to find his touch with the bat. Border supported for Burns’ exclusion for the opening Test and thinks that he has had windows of opportunity due to injuries and other circumstances and still has failed to nail down a spot. The World Cup-winning captain believes that even 20 runs by surviving a considerable amount of deliveries could have saved his place.

“That’s where Joe Burns is at with his technique at the moment – he is just shot. It’s a sad sight, isn’t it, seeing a bloke really struggling to find any sort of form. My gut feel is just no [for Burns]. He has been given these little windows of opportunity because of injury, concussion, circumstances with other guys without nailing down a spot. If he had just shown something, even if he had 20-odd today and batted OK and got a good ball to get out – you might think: ‘OK, we’ll stick with the incumbent,” Allan Border said as quoted by WA Today.com.

He is just having that terrible run at the moment: Allan Border

The former New South Wales cricketer appreciated India’s gameplans, attacking Burns’ off-stump to expose his changed guard of covering the off-stump better. The visitors, who also dismissed Marcus Harris cheaply, earned praises from Border on their strategy to get rid of him.

“It was good bowling, they [India] were attacking the off stump. He changed his guard a little bit to cover his off stump better but you can’t miss straight ones on middle stump. He is just having that terrible run at the moment. It was a good piece of bowling, well thought out, they [India] have seen Marcus Harris a few times now. Just a three-card trick … as a captain you love when things like that come off,” the 65-year old added.

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