Burns' poor form continues ahead of first Test

Australia batsman Joe Burns' struggles continued, falling for one against India.

 
 

Joe Burns' poor run of form continued during Australia A's tour match against India on Sunday.

The opener, whose place for the first Test is under threat, fell for just one in the second innings, trapped lbw by Mohammed Shami in Sydney.

Burns has been in poor form ahead of the series opener beginning in Adelaide on Thursday.

The right-hander fell for a duck in the first innings, while he made scores of four and 0 in the previous tour match.

It comes after Burns scored just 57 runs in five Sheffield Shield innings for Queensland to begin the season.

His form comes at a time when Australia are dealing with injuries to top-order batsmen, with David Warner (adductor) and Will Pucovski (concussion) already ruled out of the first Test.

Burns' combination with Warner had been talked up before the explosive left-hander suffered his injury.

In 27 Test innings, Burns and Warner have scored 1,365 runs at an average of 50.55, including averaging 65.4 against Pakistan and New Zealand in 2019-20.

Marcus Harris, who like Pucovski was in good form to begin the Shield season, made scores of 26 and five, having departed for 35 and finished with 25 not out in the first tour game.

The top-order woes have led to suggestions Shaun Marsh, 37, could return, with only Pucovski (495) having scored more Sheffield Shield runs than his 485 this season.

But frmer Australia wicketkeeper Ian Healy hopes Australia look elsewhere.

"I hope not. Not because it's Shaun, but because we've got heaps of players that have performed in those Shield games and you don't have to go back to a 37-year-old player," he told SEN.

"I want to see him play Shield cricket for as long as he wants and help a lot of blokes, but we're better than having to go back to Shaun I reckon."