Sometimes a minor detail can reveal so much. So, you do wonder whether England have simply aggravated the situation for poor Rory Burns.
The 31-year-old left-handed opener had already etched himself near the top of a long ledger of England’s Ashes infamy with that calamitous first-ball-of-the-series dismissal; then, in the second innings, instead of heading to the striker’s end — his destination in all but two of his previous 54 Test innings (the only exceptions being when Jack Leach took first ball as a nightwatchman) — he went to the sanctuary of the bowler’s end, allowing Haseeb Hameed to face Mitchell Starc.
For some openers such rotation is the norm. For instance, Australia’s David Warner and Marcus Harris usually swap positions in the second innings (Warner’s rib injury meant we did not see that in action in this Test). They did that in the last three Ashes Tests in England in 2019, but in the first two matches Cameron Bancroft always took first ball, while Warner waited.
And here is the crux. It is about personal preference that should be accommodated whenever possible. Openers are a curious breed, with many of them guided by superstition and habit, simply by dint of the arduousness of their task. It is a cruel, unforgiving job.
So when back in the mists of time I opened for Glamorgan, I always took first ball (reasoning that runs were often on offer first up, as they would have been for Burns in Brisbane had his front-foot trigger not gone much further outside off stump than usual, thus missing the leg-stump half-volley from Starc), while my long-term partner, Hugh Morris, preferred to be at the other end. When the Australian Matthew Elliott — what a player he was — arrived after Morris’s retirement, he too wanted the first ball, so we compromised and alternated.
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The key is that Burns takes first ball for Surrey too. At Nottinghamshire Hameed allows his partner, Ben Slater, that honour. These are their routines.
On the dreaded pair most players would prefer not to wait. On my Test debut in 1998 against South Africa my opening partner, university friend and now colleague in this parish, Mike Atherton, kindly allowed me to face the first ball of the first innings. Unfortunately, he made a duck, so when the time to follow-on came rather too quickly, he made it clear he was facing in the second innings. Fair enough.
Burns went the other way. And this is not to question his mettle, for sure. He is a cricketer of character, of that there cannot be any doubt. But, if first-over dismissals were considered the problem, he was facing the fourth ball of the innings anyway, and was actually given out for a pair to the sixth ball, before being reprieved by a review. And the danger is that the Australians will now seize on this. The barbs will be loud and plentiful.
Whose idea was it? Yes, it was Burns’s sixth Test duck this year — the most by an opener (Athers may not want me to mention that he is next on the list, with five in that year of 1998) — but they are an accepted occupational hazard, not a catalyst for a hasty change of tack.
Burns is now under the heaviest of fire. But to criticise his technique is simply to kick at an open door. It is ugly and unique, and it will not be copied or coached.
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But Burns is a serious professional run-scorer. He has more than 10,000 first class runs at an average of 41.57. Openers rarely care for aesthetics. Beauty mostly lurks lower down the order.
Burns’s Test average is moderate — 31.36 (after 30 Tests — but he has three centuries and only last summer was named England’s player of the series against New Zealand, making 132 at Lord’s and 81 at Edgbaston. He averaged 39 in the 2019 Ashes and only the imperious Steve Smith faced more balls in that series.
The harsh truth is that facing an attack of the quality of Australia’s is probably asking Burns’s technique to work above its threshold. He is hardly alone in that regard. He can only succeed if all his moving parts are completely in sync. If they are not, as in Brisbane, he will struggle. He needs to find his rhythm this week.
For all his idiosyncrasies Burns plays the ball very late and is an exceptional timer of it. He also has time, as evidenced by the delightful pulled four off a 90mph short ball from Starc in his second-innings 13. Do not write him off just yet.
The story with the right-handed Hameed, 24, is very different, possessing a much more positive narrative. His 25 and 27 in Brisbane were quite rightly classed as promising, but he is going to need to kick on. He left well (often on length, which is not often an option in England), showed courage (the second ball of the second innings leapt like fat from a frying pan to hit him on the forearm and the next ball he drove confidently through cover for three) and was positive enough in looking to score when the opportunities arose. One offside back-foot force for four off Starc in his second innings was quite magnificent. Concerns over his low hands were not realised, although his second-innings dismissal, caught down the leg side off Starc, may warrant further investigation should he linger.
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England’s batting lost them the first Test. It has long been a debilitating problem, relying way too much on Joe Root. If it is to be restored to anything approaching more general health, that must begin at the top. Opening these days, especially with a Kookaburra ball that now seems to want to dart around as much as a Dukes, is not easy — just ask Harris, who averages ten in four Tests against England, while Warner’s first-innings 94 contained more luck than that usually proffered by the good Lady — but Burns and Hameed must start the process in Adelaide. And Burns should take first ball.
