Whilst Burns looks awful right at the moment, I don't think we should be casting him aside immediately - his knock in the last test was in no-win circumstances for a start. But really the bigger issue is, we know how hard being an England opener is with the Dukes ball and seaming conditions at home then the culture shock when we play away - a lot of people are not old enough to realise that the golden period when we had Trescothick, Vaughan, Strauss and Cook was a massive outlier in the period since 1970.
Since Lord Brockett retired, we've tried (aside from those who did make it in the middle order) Robson, Lyth, Stoneman, Carberry, Compton, Hales, Duckett, Hameed, Roy, Jennings and probably some I've forgotten. Only Jennings has been given a second dig, which is odd. But really, who amongst that number looked like they might be of the required class? At best three - Carberry (but his age counted against him) and Lyth (who probably is test class but only as a number five) were hamstrung by playing Australia and Hameed by insisting on his father as a coach.
So Burns...may not average what we might like. May have dubious facial hair. But he has shown gumption, made test hundreds (plural) and seems a decent, level headed sort.
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Topic: England’s international summer (Read 133799 times)