(Photo: Getty Images)
By Charlie Talbot-Smith
Newly-engaged and captain of his boyhood county – life is pretty good for Rory Burns right now.
But after an off-season spent braving the Canadian winter, where his fiancée Victoria currently lives, Burns has returned home to Surrey hungry for much more.
If you can tell a lot about a man by his haircut, then it’s worth noting that the distinctive top-knot has been traded in for a short back and sides. Simply a fiancée’s influence or another indication of the boy becoming a man?
Either way, the coffee shops of Toronto have made a killing off the 27-year-old, who has whiled away the hours either in the gym or with his nose buried in a book over the past few months.
One tome in particular has caught his eye – The Obstacle Is The Way by Ryan Holiday.
And as he prepares to embark on his first year as four-day and one-day captain at the Oval, Burns has big plans.
The wedding can wait – that’s not until 2019. For now, he is ready to lead his home county into a new era.
“I am very happy with how the off-season has gone, captaining my boyhood club and getting engaged – it’s all come together nicely,” he said.
“I suppose I’m just sort of doing it all in one fell swoop! Am I becoming a man? I don’t know, you’d have to ask my fiancée!
“I did see my name on the captain’s board the other day and sent a photo to her straight away. It’s pretty cool.
“I have been here since I was eight, I have always been a Surrey boy, I live in Epsom and I signed because I wanted to play for them.
“Even just getting on the board as a capped player was amazing, to be the captain is just a ridiculous privilege.
“When I was younger I always used to captain school teams and age-groups. I like thinking about the game.
“When you are out on the field it can get pretty draining standing at third slip listening to Batts (Gareth Batty) droning on! It will be nice to change pace, think about it and try and help.
“I have been reading a lot, not just leadership books, I like a read in general. It passes the time quite nicely with a coffee in the Canadian winter.
“But there is one that stands out, it’s actually more a life book rather than leadership, but it’s called The Obstacle Is The Way.
“It’s a great book, full of philosophical stuff that you can apply in your own way.
“With psychology, when I was younger I used to take the mick and wind up the guys I was working with.
“But it is actually amazing what you can achieve when you get what’s going on between your ears right.”
When the New England Partriots stormed to the Super Bowl in the 2014 season, The Obstacle Is The Way was mandatory reading for Bill Belichick’s side.
And while Burns is not looking to set up a book club in the Oval dressing room, there are a few changes from the Batty era that Burns – and Jade Dernbach who takes over the T20 side – would like to implement.
“Batts was excellent as a captain, Jade and I have taken over at a far more stable time than he did,” he added.
“Now it is our job to push it on and I jumped at the challenge – it is something I am looking forward to and something I have really enjoyed so far.
“I wouldn’t say I am quite as Churchillian as Batts! He can come up with some great speeches off the cuff – that is his sort of thing.
“I am more about leading by example and trying to have those little conversations, pick people and groups off at times when I think they need that little bit extra or we need to communicate.
“As a whole I think this team can communicate better, and more often, so that we are all pulling in the same direction.
“It’s about not getting too caught up in it. Of course we want to win games and we want to win trophies. But what does that look like day-to-day? That is more important as a focus for me.
“That’s how I go about my own cricket and I want that for this team as well.
“I have been doing a lot of reading on the subject, and you can look at the New England Patriots and what they have achieved.
“Their period of success has been built over their consistency of what they do daily. So, if it happens this year, or the year after, it’s going to take some time.”
Third in the County Championship last year, quarter-finalists in the Blast and runners-up at Lord’s in the One-Day Cup – for the third year in a row – it is going to be a tough act to follow for Burns.
Then there is the small matter of replacing Kumar Sangakkara’s runs in the top order – easier said than done.
Ryan Patel stepped up to the plate when Mark Stoneman got the call from England, young Ollie Pope bagged a maiden first-class ton at the end of the summer and Burns knows you rule out Arun Harinath at your own peril.
“The Baron is the Baron for a reason! He has been here for a long time and he knows his game,” he added.
“And he’s Sri Lankan, so maybe he could be our new Sangakkara, you never know!
“But who in world cricket would not miss Sanga? We are well-stocked, it will just be a slightly different make-up to how we go about it, but obviously we will be without the King.”
Burns himself will continue to rack up the scores – he has over 1,000 first-class runs for the last four seasons in a row now. If one were nit-picking, his conversion rate needs work – he only managed one ton last year alongside eight fifties. But still England continue to look the other way, and it is clearly starting to sting.
“Yeah, I would have loved to have gone on that Lions tour,” he admits. “But they have had no direct contact with me so I don’t know if they are talking to people above.
“I still very much want to play international cricket. Obviously my best suit is the longer form of the game.
“From my point of view, I can only focus on what I can do, how I get better and, if I am being critical, convert more starts to big hundreds.
“The captaincy seems to help that, I got a double hundred when I was captain at the end of last season against Hampshire.
“International cricket is still very much a focus of mine. I’m going to be honest, I was disappointed not to be involved last year – like anyone would have been.
“The other two blokes who got past 1,000 runs in the division, one got into the England Test team (Stoneman) and the other is Kumar Sangakkara!
“There is disappointment on my side but I have just got to keep trucking.”
