Rory Burns‘ woeful Ashes tour has continued.
Four balls after surviving a nick through to wicketkeeper Alex Carey in the Hobart Test, the England opener was run out.
The struggling tourist edged the last ball of Mitchell Starc‘s first over, but Australia gave the meekest of appeals and opted against challenging the umpire’s not-out call.
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Burns was then run out just minutes later when Zak Crawley played a forward defensive stroke and called his opening partner through for a single.
They both hesitated briefly and Marnus Labuschagne, fielding at cover, swooped on the ball and threw down the stumps at the wicketkeeper’s end.
Burns was narrowly short of the crease.
“There was a run there; he was just slow to react,” said leg-spin legend Shane Warne said on Fox Cricket.
“When you’re facing this quality of attack with the new ball, that drop and run is just such an important single to get off strike and (not allow someone to) bowl ball after ball at you.
“You’ve got to be aware of that; Burns had just no match awareness whatsoever.”
Burns played the first two Tests of the series, in Brisbane and Adelaide, before being dropped for Crawley for the next two matches.
The left-hander is averaging just 10.2 from five innings in the series.
On Saturday he registered his eighth duck from his last 22 Test innings.
Crawley has been widely touted by cricket greats as a long-term Test opener, but neither Burns nor the axed Haseeb Hameed have given England selectors reason to trust them in the Ashes.
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