South Africa v England

Rory Burns faces race to be fit for start of county season after ankle surgery

by Wisden Staff January 7, 2020 - 9:45am 3 minute read

Rory Burns faces a race against time to be fit for the start of the county season after being forced to undergo surgery to treat ankle ligaments ruptured playing football while on England duty.

An ECB statement confirmed that, though the surgery, which took place on Monday afternoon, was successful, Burns will be out for up to four months, and with Surrey’s County Championship campaign starting on April 19, it will be touch and go whether the left-hander recovers in time.

He is certain to miss the entirety of England’s tour of Sri Lanka, potentially leaving the door open for Keaton Jennings to return. Though the Lancashire opener has struggled in England, with a high score of 48 from 10 Tests at home, he averages 44.44 in Asia and has made both of his Test hundreds so far in the subcontinent.

Burns’ injury has led to football being barred from England training sessions. The ECB are yet to name England’s squads to tour Sri Lanka or a replacement for Burns in their squad to face South Africa.

Analysis – Jennings recall a sensible option

Bringing Jennings back for the Sri Lanka series is a sensible option and certainly one worth considering. His record in Asia is excellent and in truth, England aren’t spoilt for choice in the top-order department. Dom Sibley and Zak Crawley, the current opening pair in Burns’ absence, have just one game of first-class experience between them in Asia. It’s convention to adjust the makeup of bowling attacks to suit particular conditions, so why shouldn’t the same apply to batting line-ups? Even if Sibley and Crawley are the opening pair selected for the playing XI, Jennings would represent a safe pair of hands on a short-term basis as the squad’s reserve batsman at the very least.

Longer term, India’s pace attack has developed into one of the very best in the world. In their recent series at home to Bangladesh, 33 of the 40 Bangladesh wickets fell to the Indian seamers. Given Jennings’ well-documented struggles against high quality pace, the India tour might be a stretch but that’s no reason not to consider him for the upcoming Sri Lanka series.

Yas Rana, Wisden staff writer