Tim Paine hints at Matthew Wade-Joe Burns opening combo for Adelaide Test against India

Ahead of Australia’s Day-Night Test against India, starting Thursday, December 17, Tim Paine, the home team’s skipper, has backed an out-of-form Joe Burns to come good. Burns hasn’t had the best of times in the Sheffield Shield and he failed in the warm-up matches as well, bagging two ducks with his other two knocks being in the single digits.

Paine reckons that despite Burns’ lack of form in recent times in domestic cricket, the fact that he has an average around 40 in Test cricket can’t be undermined by any means. In 21 Tests, the right-hander has scored 1,379 runs with four centuries and six fifties. As per the Aussie skipper, lack in confidence isn’t an issue for the Brisbane-born Burns.

Paine happy with Joe Burns’ performance in Test cricket

“Speaking to Joe, I don’t think he is (lacking confidence). He’s been looking forward to this Test match. His build-up in terms of runs hasn’t been great but if you look at the work, he’s done solely in Test cricket for this team, it has been very, very good. He averages just over 40 in Test cricket,” Paine was quoted as saying in Cricbuzz.

“If Joe walks out to bat tomorrow, we have full confidence in him doing the job, there’s no doubt about that. Stability in good cricket teams, in good sports teams, is really important. That’s something we’ve tried to build over the last two years is try and have that stability around the selection, it takes the worry out of it for certain players,” he stated.

Going into the Adelaide Test, the Aussies have found themselves in a bit of trouble after David Warner and Will Pucovski were sidelined due to injuries. The hosts roped in Marcus Harris, who has also opened the batting for Australia in Test cricket.

But along with Burns, Paine is looking at Matthew Wade as one of the openers. “Look, he’s (Wade) certainly an option to open the batting. No doubt about that. I think we’ve got a number of guys who are willing to open the batting. That says a lot about our group, not just Wadey,” Paine added.

Wade averages a mere 31.3 from 32 Tests with four centuries. But recently, he got scores of 58 and 80 against India while opening the batting, though it was in the T20 format.