Burns, Head provide new hope

It was one of those mornings when openers earn their pay, as well as a few more silver hairs.

A cool day, blanket cloud, a pitch bearing a discernible mat of grass into which curators have pumped a few extra litres of water after some baking hot afternoons amid the fear it might prematurely dry out and crack.

Toss in a largely unseen, young bowling attack given the new ball that immediately starts bending in the air and jagging occasionally off the surface, and you're living the cricket cliché of fighting a 'difficult first hour'.

For Joe Burns, recently recalled to Australia's Test line-up having been cut adrift after his past two stints in the Baggy Green Cap that brought him one Test apiece, the scenario might have appeared bleaker than Canberra's grey first day.

Certainly, as three of his batting partners came and went with barely a blink inside the game's opening half-hour, the degree of difficulty appeared to mount with every delivery from Sri Lanka's unknown seamers.

But by day's end, Burns basked in the metaphorical sunshine of a career-high Test score (172 not out) which he resumes tomorrow morning, facing the prospect of lifting his team into an unassailable position and himself on to the upcoming Ashes tour.

Where the inability of Australia's batters to handle conditions precisely like those they encountered at Manuka Oval today has seen them return bereft of the tiny terracotta urn on each of the past four Ashes excursions to the UK.

Now in his fourth iteration as a Test opener, Burns is too savvy to weigh into speculation about today's innings securing him a berth in the likely 16-man touring party for the England series that gets underway in the traditionally gloomy Midlands in August this year.

But if ever he was going to retreat into survival mode, it was surely in the ninth over of Canberra's maiden Test match when Australia found themselves once more in trouble against the swinging ball.

And staring at a grimly familiar scoreboard showing 3-28.

However, the arrival of newly appointed vice-captain Travis Head into that hectic battle scene brought not only a marked change in fortunes, but a steely resolve between the pair to resurrect the ship and set it, at full sail, towards a position of dominance.

"Coming into the day's play, we knew that the first hour was going to be pretty tough," Burns said after play, having admitted he was simply "bloody happy" to have reached his first Test ton in three years.

"A bit of grass on the wicket, a bit of (cloud) overhead.

"So despite losing the three wickets, we knew that we just had to absorb that pressure that they posed to us.

"But we were also aware that they were an inexperienced bowling attack that were going to present scoring opportunities if we could get through those tough periods.

"Full credit to Trav, he comes out with great intent and puts the bowlers off their mark.

"He turned three early wickets into, straight away, pressure back on the bowlers and you could sense it out there."

It's the sort of positive mindset, fused with technical acumen, that Australia's selectors will have at front of mind given the failures of the Test team's top-order when the ball is swinging and the conditions are conducive.

The last time Australia's top-order batting folded so meekly in the opening hour of a Test match was against South Africa in Hobart two summers ago.

That was under eerily similar conditions – grey skies, cool temperature and with the ball swinging sufficiently to render stroke-play and footwork uncertain.

It also led to upheaval in Australia's ranks, with batters (Burns notable among them) jettisoned and selection chair, Rod Marsh, standing down.

The significant difference between that day and this was – having crashed to 3-8 inside the first half-hour at Blundstone Arena in 2016 – Australia were unable to find anyone able to stem the free-fall.

Largely because the Proteas' attack of Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada and Kyle Abbott were as unrelenting and as they were irresistible.

Today that salvage job was not simply accepted by Burns and Head, it was turned into a record-breaking triumph.

In more than 140 years of Test cricket, no two players batting together for the first time have combined to score more than the 308 runs that the Queenslander and his young South Australia teammate piled on today.

In part, that came about through the inexperience of Sri Lanka's seamers.

They boasted a combined aggregate of five Tests and 14 wickets between them when play began, and were unable to capitalise on their dream start.

Instead, they haemorrhaged runs from the moment Burns and Head began their carefully orchestrated counter-push.

That won't prove the case against England later this year, when Tim Paine's team will likely be confronted by the most experienced and potent new-ball pairing that Test cricket has known – James Anderson and Stuart Broad.

As Australia learned during their failed 2015 Ashes campaign, on which they were reduced to 3-34 and then 3-10 on the opening mornings of consecutive Tests, there are no better exponents of seam and swing bowling in helpful conditions that the veteran England pair.

Of greatest worry for Australia's selectors as they ponder their Ashes squad, with no Test match cricket to inform their choices between this match and the campaign opener at Edgbaston next August, is the manner in which today's early collapse was triggered.

The sight of left-handers Marcus Harris (11) and Usman Khawaja (0) with feet planted, throwing their hands at deliveries that tailed away from them and could have been let happily pass by must have brought nightmarish flashbacks.

Of the horror at Hobart.

Of the trauma at Trent Bridge in 2015, where Michael Clarke's men were rolled over for 60 before lunch on day one, prompting the skipper to announce his retirement by game's end.

Of the embarrassment at Edgbaston that preceded that disaster, where Australia capitulated for 136 in less than 40 overs to surrender any momentum they had built earlier on the tour.

Indeed, it's been Australia's inability to deal with the swinging ball – both conventional swing, and reverse as was the issue in 2005 – that has rendered them winless in Ashes series contested on British soil since 2001.

But perhaps, given the unprecedented scale of today's partnership that was also Australia's best for any wicket since Shaun Marsh and Adam Voges clubbed 449 against the West Indies in Hobart three summer ago, they have found new hope.

A blueprint for overcoming, rather than the historic penchant for succumbing.

It certainly fitted the criteria that was discussed among the team prior to play commencing, where the need for big partnerships as well as players' refusal to be content with 'small' centuries was reiterated.

"I think also the left-hand, right-hand combination and just being able to score in different areas," Burns today identified as a key element of his union with Head.

"And to keep the scoreboard ticking along all day meant that their bowlers couldn't get that build-up of pressure.

"That's the key to a good partnership, and it was really satisfying to do that for a long period of time today.

"It's something we've spoken about as a group and hopefully we can come out tomorrow and do much of the same."

Australia XI: Marcus Harris, Joe Burns, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Travis Head, Kurtis Patterson, Tim Paine (c/wk), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Jhye Richardson, Nathan Lyon

Sri Lanka XI: Dimuth Karunaratne, Lahiru Thirimanne, Dinesh Chandimal (c), Kusal Mendis, Kusal Perera, Dhananjaya de Silva, Niroshan Dickwella (wk), Dilruwan Perera, Chamika Karunaratne, Vishwa Fernando, Kasun Rajitha

Domain Test Series v Sri Lanka

Australia: Tim Paine (c/wk), Joe Burns, Pat Cummins, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Kurtis Patterson, Will Pucovski, Jhye Richardson, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis

Sri Lanka: Dinesh Chandimal (c), Dimuth Karunaratne, Lahiru Thirimanne, Kusal Mendis, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Dhananjaya de Silva, Roshen Silva, Niroshan Dickwella (wk), Kusal Perera, Dilruwan Perera, Lakshan Sandakan, Suranga Lakmal, Kasun Rajitha, Chamika Karunaratne, Vishwa Fernando

First Test: Australia won by an innings and 40 runs

Second Test: February 1-5, Canberra