Burns and Sibley push for England recall with County Championship hundreds

Former England openers Dom Sibley and Rory Burns both scored hundreds in the latest round of the County Championship for Warwickshire and Surrey respectively

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Stokes relishing responsibility of England captaincy

Rory Burns and Dom Sibley both notched timely hundreds in the County Championship, with the two openers pushing for an England recall.

Burns was axed after a lean Ashes series saw him score just 77 runs at an average of 12.83, but he still has a central contract and remains the only specialist batter that made their Test debut after 2015 to have a career average over 20.

Gareth Batty, his head coach at Surrey, insisted Burns remains the “best opener in the country”. And with neither Zak Crawley and Alex Lees nailing down their spot at the top of the order in the West Indies, he could force his way back into contention.

After a run of low scores to start the season, Burns hit a timely 107 in Surrey’s game against Northamptonshire, with Sam Curran the only other member of the top seven to pass 21. When asked about a potential recall, Burns said: “Well, it’s nice to get a hundred. That’s the thing, isn’t it?”

Sibley, meanwhile, was dropped last summer after a run of low scores against India and New Zealand. However, the 26-year-old has gone away and worked hard on his technique, withdrawing from the England Lions’ tour of Australia to “spend the winter working on his batting at home in a bid to regain England selection.”

Like Burns, Sibley endured a tough start to the season but he struck an impressive unbeaten century against an impressive Lancashire bowling attack. Former England coach David Lloyd was commentating on the match and was impressed with Sibley’s innings, claiming he has “vastly improved from when he last played for England”.

Lloyd said: “When you say heavy runs, it’s hundreds. I would say that he is vastly improved from when he last played for England because he has worked.

“He will have decided that this [his previous stance] isn’t working. He is [more] sideways-on and he looks assured. This is the type of pitch you play Test matches on and concentration is massive. If you concentrate, you can bat for two days.”