Burns set to be Australia's Gabba ace

His batting numbers more closely mirror his fellow Queensland opener Mathew Hayden, but when he was an aspiring junior cricketer in the front yard of his family home in Brisbane’s northern suburbs Joe Burns dreamed of emulating Mark Waugh.

It’s a story the 26-year-old batsman recounts with a self-conscious air given Waugh’s current role as a member of the national selection panel that has returned Burns to the fold for the start of the upcoming three-Test series against New Zealand.

"I really liked Matthew Hayden being a Queenslander but my favourite batter was Mark Waugh," the opener who made his Test debut as a middle-order batsman against India in last year’s Boxing Day Test said today when asked about his boyhood idols.

"I know it's bad saying that because he's a selector now.

"When I was a junior, my coach said I looked like Mark Waugh playing off my legs so I spent hours upon hours trying to look like Mark Waugh with my brother bowling at me.

"I've still got one of his (Waugh’s) bats at home, I think a (Slazenger) V100. 

"He was definitely my favourite player." 

WATCH: Burns scores timely ton for Cricket Australia XI

But while his affinity for the elegant former middle-order batsman might raise a smile around the selection table, it’s Burns’s Hayden-esque returns at the top of the order for Queensland in recent years that has him inked into the selectors notebooks.

Of the impressive list of regular openers (a dozen innings or more) to have represented the home team at the Gabba – where the first Test against the Black Caps begins on Thursday – over the past 85 years, none have bettered Burns’s current average of 62.70.

The nearest is local legend Hayden who averaged 56.23 in the Shield arena and even more (60.07) in his 15 Test innings at the ground where Australia has not lost a first-class international fixture since the once great West Indies led by Viv Richards triumphed by nine wickets in 1988.

The year before Burns was born.

It’s his imposing record at the Gabba, where the new-look Australia team enters the post-Michael Clarke era with a vastly reshaped XI, as much as his brief experience as a Test player that has seen Burns included ahead of highly rated but uncapped opener Cameron Bancroft.

And as Burns explains, the value he offers a team that is expecting a tight tussle against an opponent that boasts greater Test experience and an unfamiliar pre-match fancy among punters is that he knows the Brisbane conditions and what to expect.

As well as avoid.

"For me it really simplifies my game," Burns said about the secrets to batting on what is widely regarded as the best Test pitch in the nation.

"You can’t go outside your box too much because you’ll probably get dismissed. 

"I’m also aware that the challenge of international cricket at the Gabba is different to state level. 

"The character of the ‘Gabba is, if the bowlers bowl well it will be tough work but if they miss their spots you get good scoring opportunities.

"That's the benefit of playing there before, you know where those scoring opportunities are.

"There's a lot there for the bowlers but it's also a fantastic place to bat. 

"You can score all around the ground, there’s good pace in the wicket. If you bat well you make runs and you generally make them quite quickly as well." 

WATCH: Burns ton steers Bulls home at Gabba

Burns might have two Test matches under his belt and a pair of half centuries in the latter of those, the New Year Test against India in January before he was overlooked for the touring parties to the West Indies and the Ashes.

But he admits the lead-up to Thursday’s Test promises to be as exciting as last December’s Test debut at the MCG was nerve-wracking, with the presence of so many family, friends and Queensland supporters at the Gabba willing him to succeed over the coming week.

It also heralds the dawn of a new opening partnership for Australia, with Burns to replace Chris Rogers as incumbent opener David Warner’s partner in the knowledge the pair he is succeeding became the fourth-most prolific in Australia’s Test history.

Indeed, despite their stark character and stylistic differences Warner and Rogers finished their 22-Test union as one of only six combinations of regular openers (10 Tests or more) to average more than 50 runs per innings for the first wicket (51.33).

"I’m really looking forward to it with Davey," Burns said today about a partnership that began with a century stand in the one-day series that followed the Ashes in the UK earlier this year before Warner suffered a fractured thumb.

"I think we seem to bat well together, left-hander, right-hander, usually one partner might get some scoring phases while the other one is getting some good balls and vice-versa.

"It’s a real benefit having an experienced guy at the other end. 

"He has opened in all three forms (of the game) and he’s someone that I’m certainly going to try and lean on and learn off this week.

"Davey is a great player and whenever you're playing with a great player at the other end it always takes pressure of yourself.

"In saying that I know I need to be making runs and batting well. 

"I'm not going to be relying on Davey to take on the onus. 

"I'm going out there with a job to do, I have to make sure I'm doing it." 

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