Burns at home with star-studded Sixers

When Ellyse Perry describes you as the ‘best middle-order batter in Australia right now’, you know you’re doing something right.

For Erin Burns, a move to Sydney Sixers from Hobart Hurricanes ahead of the 2017-18 has paid off handsomely, with the 30-year-old entrenching herself behind the ‘Big Three’ of Ellyse Perry, Alyssa Healy and Ashleigh Gardner in the reigning Rebel WBBL champions’ batting order.

But when she was offered the chance to switch clubs ahead of WBBL|03, her one concern was whether she’d be able to crack the star-studded Sixers’ line-up.

“My reservation was whether I was actually going to get a go because you look at their line-up and it’s a pretty solid one, so I was a bit dubious about whether I’d be a specialist fielder,” Burns told cricket.com.au.

“But it’s been awesome, it’s definitely the best decision I’ve made.

“The firsts season playing anywhere you’re finding your feet a bit. Last season, I really enjoyed it but this season, knowing what to expect and how the Sixers go about their processes and knowing the girls a bit better from last year has been really good.

“To be able to bat around (the likes of Perry, Healy and Gardner) and also Sara McGlashan and the South Africans (Dane van Niekerk and Marizanne Kapp), it’s amazing and it’s a great opportunity to be able to push my game and try and get a little bit better training and playing with those girls.”

Burns needn’t have worried about whether she’d get a game. Last season, she played all 16 matches and scored 285 runs, while this season she’s made the most of limited opportunities – given the form of Perry and Healy at the top of the order – to hit 168 runs in eight innings at the impressive strike rate of 146.08.

The highlight to date was her cameo against the Sydney Thunder at North Sydney Oval, when she struck 44 from just 22 deliveries.

“She’s playing an unbelievable role, I don’t think she gets enough credit for what she’s doing,” Perry noted of Burns earlier this month.

“I think in terms of middle order bats in the country, she’s probably the best one at the moment.

“She’s in tremendous form and she’s so dynamic, so it’s great to have her on our side.”

The Wollongong native has a knack for creating opportunities in cricket.

After rising through the NSW underage pathways, Burns realised that breaking into a senior Breakers team full of international representatives would be near impossible, given the wealth of talent in the state.

So when Tasmania was introduced to the Women’s National Cricket League for the first time in 2010 and were looking to bolster their own ranks with several interstate players, she jumped at the opportunity.

“(Because) the NSW team at the time was essentially the Australian team it was going to be a bit of a wait-and-see kind of thing, but I got the opportunity from Tasmania to go down there,” Burns explained.

“At the time I was at uni so you have a big break each summer, so I thought why not spend the break down in Tassie and play some cricket there at the highest level.”

Over the seven seasons that followed Burns became a key cog in the Tasmanian side and, quite naturally, signed a contract with the Hobart Hurricanes when the first WBBL season rolled around.

But with her home and work still in Sydney, commuting to Tasmania for cricket was a difficult juggling act that left Burns frustrated with the amount of time she was able to spend training with her state and club.

Then, ahead of the 2017-18 season, came the offer of a contract with the Sixers – and with the ACT for the 50-over WNCL.

“Over the last couple of years with the WBBL becoming so much more professional and with a lot more time required to train and play, I found it quite difficult because I had to live and work in Sydney,” said Burns, who works in Sydney as a physio.

“I wanted to have that base and a training group where I could participate within the team environment with training and playing, and I did find it hard travelling back and forth from Tassie and staying in touch with that group.”

Given her limited ability to train with her state during that time, Burns instead worked hard on her batting in Sydney with coach Anthony Clark, who is also a Sixers assistant, while she also credits the chance to work alongside internationals Perry and Healy for her continued development.

“I just get a lot out of (Clark); I think he’s an excellent coach and I find I really do enjoy my cricket and feel like I get a lot better each season when I’m training with him,” she said.

The Sixers boast an enviable line-up of internationals with Perry, Healy and Gardner joined by former Kiwi international McGlashan and South Africa stars Kapp and van Niekerk.

But it’s also the quality of their domestic players – Burns the chief example – that’s given them the extra edge over their rivals as they claimed back-to-back WBBL titles and has them in the box seat to make it three in a row this summer.

“(Erin’s) been a fantastic get for us,” Healy said of Burns.

“It obviously helps her out playing here in Sydney with her still working here, but she’s a fantastic local player and I think every single team around the competition is eyeing her off.

“She scores in different areas, if she’s batting with ‘Pez’ (Perry) she can access other areas of the ground.

“She’s invaluable, with her fielding and with the ball as well. She’s fantastic and hopefully she just keeps going.”