Joe Burns gearing up for Sri Lankan challenge
Jul 11, 2016 at 11:41 AM
Australia’s Test squad has spent only 24 hours in a steamy Sri Lankan Island country but opener Joe Burns already feels he is fully ready for whatever unfamiliar conditions and opposition he will have to face over the next five weeks.
Burns was one of the four members of Australia’s 15-man team who spent the preceding week at a mini training camp in Chennai, barely an hour’s flight from Colombo where the Australians have now set up their base camp for the next week and a half.
Along with ‘keeper Peter Nevill, spinner Steve O’Keefe and seam bowler Jackson Bird, Burns didn’t miss the opportunity to acclimatise with the stifling post-monsoon humidity and heat, also the nature of sub-continental pitches ahead of the intensive pre-Test training starting from tomorrow.
That training mainly focused on facing a bunch of ambitious young quicks being put through their paces by Madras Pace Foundation head and former Australia Test legend Glenn McGrath and achieving insights into sub-continental conditions from local Indian players.
“The key thing for me was going from off season and getting back into really intensive training, training that’s going to be similar to Test match preparation in terms of the skill work that we do,” Burns told cricket.com.au as the squad underwent low-key gymnasium and swimming sessions on Sunday.
“And also the fact that it was really hot – I think it was over 40 degrees some of the days that we were there in Chennai.
“Nothing can really prepare your body for that in Australia during winter, so just to have a week’s head start before the tour officially gets going has been fantastic and now that we’re here in Sri Lanka I’m ready to go.”
Unlike many of his teammates who have trained at UK county level, played the Indian Premier League and then last month’s triangular ODI series West Indies that Australia won, Burns hasn’t got the chance to play a top-level game since last March’s two-Test tour of New Zealand.
On that tour he secured his berth as David Warner’s long-term opening partner with a career-best 170 in the final Test at Christchurch, picking up the man-of-the-match honours in a victory that also made Australia the world’s number-one ranked Test team.
The 26-year-old Queenslander has spent a rare four-month break in his cricket calendar with a rigorous pre-season on his own and then with the Queensland Bulls prepared hard for what awaits in upcoming Test matches at Kandy (Pallekele), Galle and Colombo.
Not only by studying the injury ravaged Sri Lankan bowling attack which laboured without much success during their recent winless campaign in England, but also he partnered with former Queensland captain and ex-Sri Lanka and Bangladesh coach Stuart Law to prepare for the upcoming challenge.
Law is serving the role of Australia’s batting coach on the current tour as incumbent Greg Blewett remains in Adelaide with wife Catherine awaiting the birth of their second child, and Law’s knowledge of local players and conditions is believed to prove invaluable for the Aussies.
“He (Law) is a great resource to have and I’m sure we’re going to work together closely over the next few weeks in preparing and refining our game now that we’re over here,” Burns said.
“We’ve already talked about different game plans for the bowlers they (Sri Lanka) have got, and I guess we’ll sit down once we know their final squad and go over things again and develop things from there.
“I certainly watched them (Sri Lanka) play in England, especially their new-ball bowlers.
“Even though conditions are going to be very different here you can still get a sense of how their pace bowlers will go about it with the new ball.
“It’s an area that we’re going to have to be really strong in against Sri Lanka.
“If we can start well and nullify the new ball then I think we’ve got enough strength throughout our middle-order to deal with their spin threat.
“For me I see that as my job for the tour – really nullify the new-ball and hopefully push on from there.”