Marsh and Burns vying for Test spot

Joe Burns knows a thing or two about numbers. A few years ago when he was a fringe state player with the Bulls, he also worked in Queensland Cricket's finance department, in accounts payable. He knows that in cricket, as in business, everything comes down to the bottom line. And while Burns' bottom line looked healthy a month ago, a hefty entry on another side of the ledger might be about to force a rebalancing of the books: S Marsh, 182, Hobart.

The harsh reality is that Burns now faces the possibility of being dropped for the Boxing Day Test against West Indies. This despite starting the summer with three consecutive century opening partnerships with David Warner, and scoring a maiden Test hundred against New Zealand at the Gabba. To use statistics to his advantage, Burns and Warner's partnership average of 88.85 is the highest of all time by an Australian opening pair with a minimum of five innings.

But statistics can work both ways. Burns has not passed fifty in his past five Test innings, and notably Shaun Marsh has thrived. Marsh's 49 in the second innings at Adelaide Oval helped Australia achieve victory from a slightly shaky position in their chase against New Zealand, and his 182 against West Indies in Hobart similarly set up a win after the top order had wobbled. His 449-run stand with Adam Voges was the highest of all time for the fourth wicket.

How do you compete with that? It is not unprecedented for a batsman to be dropped after making a Test century, but it is rare. And the certain return of Usman Khawaja, who struck hundreds in consecutive Tests in Brisbane and Perth before missing a month with a hamstring injury, means that either Marsh or Burns will be omitted. Burns' only hope is if the selectors view his partnership with Warner as Australia's long-term opening solution, and are reluctant to split them up.

That is the argument proposed by Ricky Ponting, who believes Burns has done enough to retain his place and that Marsh, as the last man in, has to be the first man out. But both Khawaja and Marsh are considered opening candidates by Australia's selectors. Changing the opening combination could have long-term ramifications; as Justin Langer showed when thrust in with Matthew Hayden in the last Test of the 2001 Ashes, one chance can lead to years of opportunities.

Equally, Burns and Marsh have both discovered over the past year that selectors can change their minds quickly. Burns scored fifties in each innings of the Sydney Test against India but was then not included for the tours of West Indies and England that followed, while Marsh played in the West Indies but was cut for the start of the Ashes, reinstalled for one Test, then dropped again. One of them will again get the dreaded tap on the shoulder this week.

"Nothing changes from my point of view," Burns said in Melbourne on Tuesday. "I just try and prepare as best I can. We've got a few days of training before the game and I'm just focused on getting to each day, training as hard as I can with a view to making sure I'm ready to play. Then obviously selections will go from there."

Burns knows that he could have put the matter beyond doubt by backing up his Brisbane century with another big score in Perth, or Adelaide, or Hobart, but instead he has had to settle for contributions of 40, 0, 14, 11 and 33 in those matches against New Zealand and West Indies. In both Perth and Hobart, he then had to sit in the rooms and watch other batsmen plunder mountains of runs and pile on huge partnerships.

"It's been frustrating I guess to get starts, because as an opening batter the hardest thing to do is probably getting a start," Burns said. "To go on and waste it, to make some 30s and 40s, it doesn't really count for much, in terms of trying to help the team win, when you're getting out for 40 or 30 ... If you get a start you can go on and get a big score, but the frustrating part is that with those starts you should be making fifties at least and hundreds ideally."