Ashes 2019: Was it all about mental attitude?

Funky back lift. Quite a susceptible footwork. Stance changes against spin, which you can't explain why he did such. Not fully authoritative outside the offstump.

But still, Rory Burns has played the role of a sheet anchor to keep the England innings steady. Nasser Hussain asked Kumar Sangakkara about Burns, who had been his teammate in Surrey, and Sanga replied, it was all about mental attitude.

Of course, mental attitude is a must-needed factor when you have a technique of your own. Players like Javed Miandad, Virender Sehwag or Steve Smith of modern-day cricket, sustained the pressure of batsmanship at the highest level with their own methods, but the batting display of Burns today was not just about mental attitude alone, rather, first of all, he was lucky and secondly, the Australian pacers did not bowl full enough outside off and attacked his edge.

Peter Siddle bowled tight line and length against Burns, sadly, few of those deliveries threatened to hit the stumps in the pre-and -ost-lunch session. While Pat Cummins realized the importance of bowling full enough in the 60th over when he beat Burns twice. Neither the Aussie pacers were able to move the Duke ball when the overcast conditions demanded movement in the air if not off the deck.

Burns, in my opinion, is still a susceptible customer. If a pacer brings the ball back in from a full-length and moves it away by targeting the top of off, he could be an easy target.

Moreover, he is very much shaky against the spinners - changed his stance twice against Lyon - first on the middle and leg stump and later, on the leg stump, which left Nasser and others pondering about the reason. Sanga stated, he did it only to counter the drift, but how convincing was that statement, I wonder.

Still, he is batting out there and scoring runs - Mental attitude, I endorse the thought, but I think the line of attack to Burns was not ideal from Australian bowlers.

Thank You

Faisal Caesar