Rory Burns: "To get over the line today is a wonderful feeling"

JAMES COYNE: Burns turns the clock back with determined innings, and takes a huge step forward in the process as England made Australia toil at Edgbaston

Rory Burns took a great leap forward with his maiden Test century – and suppressed a few of England’s top-order demons in the process as they strengthened their grip on the opening Test of the Ashes.

Burns, his place in doubt heading into the series, went away, met with his childhood mentor Neil Stewart, and hit countless balls as he tried to get back to the gritty style which has seen him churn out thousands of runs for Surrey over the past few seasons. He has a crabby, idiosyncratic technique – but that never stopped Shiv Chanderpaul or Graeme Smith from scoring bucketloads of Test runs.

The second day of the Edgbaston Test, which saw Burns’ 125 not out guide England to 276 for 4, a deficit of just 17, was the most serene day of top-order batting England had enjoyed in Test cricket for some time – and much of it had to do with Burns overcoming the shaky form that saw his returns for Surrey dry up and fail twice in last week’s Test against Ireland at Lord’s.

He said: “I buried my head in the sand to all sort of comments and media, and tried to get myself round people, team-mates and coaches that back me, and then back my own skills and see it as an opportunity to nail down a spot.

“I went to someone [Neil Stewart] whose known me since the age of six, who’s been coaching me, and I just asked him what he reckoned. He gleaned out a few thoughts out of me – and then I just tried to put those into practice, get a bat in hand as much as I could over those four or five days in between the two Tests, and just stay true to what’s got me here.

“I had a look at my balance, from last Test to this, and I was trying to get that rhythm and feeling back. Sometimes it just takes two hours at the crease to get you going.

“I've been trying to embrace opportunities. I wanted to put myself in a better position to take that opportunity. I was struggling with my rhythm as Lord's, I was trying to find a way to get that good feeling back. I don't think you'd coach many kids to bat like I do but sometimes you've got to get into a battle in a scrappy way and come through.”

Burns’ hundred was just the kind of throwback to Test-match opening batsmanship that England used to produce in spades, and which was especially needed on a benign pitch and against a ball doing little.

It was the first century in four years at home by an England opener not called Alastair Cook, and Burns' partnership of 136 with captain Joe Root – whose elevation to No.3 was paying off so far – allowed England to reach the position of 150 for 1 for the first time since the Rajkot Test in November 2016.

Michael Vaughan, on TMS, even compared Burns’ effort to one of Cook’s many hundreds. Burns said: “I will take that. That is high praise indeed. It was one for the purists – hard work. I enjoy that, getting in the battle and doing what you can is enough for me.”

^{The century was Burns' first in Test cricket}

Burns was inspired by a team meeting with several past England Ashes cricketers, including some of the 2005-winning side, including Vaughan, on the eve of the series, as the team management tried to refocus minds on the majesty of Test cricket after six months of white-ball focus in the squad culminating in the World Cup triumph.

“To be an Ashes cricketer in the first place is a wonderful thing,” said Burns. “We had a connect with some past players and some 2005 Ashes heroes the night before the match, and I was literally ready to run through a brick wall at that stage and get right in amongst it. The night before I probably faced my first ball a couple of times and probably scored my first hundred a couple of times, and to then get over the line today is a wonderful feeling.”

Australia toiled without reward for much of the day, on a flat wicket and with a Dukes ball that refused to swing until they finally forced its replacement by the umpires after 60 overs. Though it was the longest Burns had batted since May, he said he did not find it enervating.

“I just tried to stay level, in all honesty. It was quite a slow and attritional wicket, and in a silly way that suits the way I go about my business, and it was just nice to stay on the treadmill and be as stubborn as I could be.

“I wasn’t tired, actually. I’ve done that before in county cricket, I’ve got experience to draw upon, and just replicating it with the crowd, was fairly present in what was going on. Hopefully I’ve still got a few more left in me and we’ve still got a few more left in us.”

Though Burns played and missed four times to Pat Cummins in one over, and he lost Joe Denly and Jos Buttler in short order, he kept his composure through 35 balls in the nineties and eventually worked the single he needed to reach his maiden Test hundred. There was a direct hit at his end, but Burns knew he was in.

“My general thoughts when I was on 99, and Nathan Lyon started bowling quite handy stuff, was to try to talk myself out of sweeping him. Obviously it’s a shot of mine… But one away you get caught up in that. Try to stay level and wait for the ball in my area. I’d missed out on one from [Peter] Siddle the over before. So when I just nudged in the gap and I backed my sprint speed to get over the line. I knew I was in.

“The Hollies Stand, seeing that rocking every time through the nineties, and then to actually get over the line with a quick dash for the hundred, will be a special memory.”

Burns has come a longish route to Test cricket, with winter placements out in Australia and time at Cardiff MCCU in between coming through the Surrey academy, though he almost joined Somerset at one stage in his teenage years.

He says his Australian experiences – including opening the batting in a single T20 match with David Warner for Randwick-Petersham in Sydney – stood him in good stead for his Test career.

“In Adelaide I went to the Darren Lehmann Academy – that was quite an intense thing. A lot of running and a lot of batting. The man who heads it up there always used to say ‘find a way’, and that’s probably something that stood me in good stead throughout my career.

“At Sydney, I found myself in different places, having different experiences, surrounded myself with different people and different team-mates. It’s important to broaden yourself not just as a cricketer, but as a person.”

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