England ban football warm-ups after Rory Burns incident

Football shall not be a part of the English cricket team’s warm-up routine anymore. As per ESPNCrincinfo’s report, England and the Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has decided to ban football from the warm-up routine after opener Rory Burns sustained an injury ahead of the second Test against South Africa in Cape Town. Zak Crawley played in Burns’ place.

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Ashley Giles, the director of the men’s team and coach Chris Silverwood made the decision ahead after Burns underwent ligament damage after falling awkwardly during practice on the eve of the second Test. Over the past few years, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Denly and pace bowler James Anderson have also suffered injuries while playing football in the warm-ups.

Struggling to find an opening partner for Alastair Cook for a long period of time, England’s problems compounded once Cook retired. They seemed to have found one solid batsman in Rory Burns but his injury will again put the English side in jeopardy.

In his 15 Test appearances, the 29-year old from Surrey has scored 979 runs with two hundreds and six fifties. Recently, Burns celebrated a century against New Zealand and scored 84 in the first Test versus South Africa at Centurion.

Young opener Zak Crawley was included in place of Burns. Other than that, England made two more changes in the side that lost the opening Test at Centurion. Somerset off-spinner Dom Bess replaced Jofra Archer while Ollie Pope took over from Jonny Bairstow in the middle-order. Pope had been ill for the previous Test while Bairstow struggled for runs in the match.

A big blowhttps://t.co/kQUR8kaV8X#SAvENG pic.twitter.com/LgJJBR9BkB

— England Cricket (@englandcricket) January 2, 2020