Australia back Burns for first Test v India

Australian captain Tim Paine has dropped a strong hint that Joe Burns is poised to retain his Test place.

Australian opener Joe Burns in the nets at Adelaide Oval

Australian captain Tim Paine has dropped a strong hint that Joe Burns is poised to retain his Test place.

Paine said he would not publicly confirm his playing XI until the toss but did say Australia know what their line-up will be for the first Test against India starting on Thursday.

The Australian skipper is confident Steve Smith will shrug off back soreness and play and all signs point to Cameron Green passing his final concussion tests to make a stunning debut.

Paine didn’t declare Burns a certain starter but said Australia would field a line-up not too dissimilar to the one that finished last summer, which suggests the Queenslander could make the cut despite his poor run of form.

According to Paine, Burns is not lacking confidence.

“Speaking to Joe I don’t think he is (lacking confidence),” Paine said.

“He’s been looking forward to this Test match. Obviously his build-up in terms of runs hasn’t been great. But if you look at the work he’s done solely in Test cricket for this team it’s been very, very good.

“If Joe walks out to bat tomorrow we’ve got full confidence in him doing the job, there is no doubt about that.

“Obviously, stability in good cricket teams, in good sports teams, is really important. That’s something that we’ve tried to build over the last two years, is to try and have that stability around selection. It takes the worry out of it for certain players.

“There is always going to be a lot of noise externally about the first Test and what team we’re picking but internally we’ve been pretty clear for a while. Things have changed a little bit with injury but I think tomorrow you’ll probably see a pretty similar side walk out that finished the summer last year here in Australia.”

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Paine said Smith was down to train on Wednesday after being unable to bat in the nets on Tuesday due to a stiff back.

“We expect Steve to be there. Steve has had a stiff back a number of times before and you do when you bat at training as much as he does,” said Paine.

“Look, his preparation has been very good. He’s batted for the last few days we’ve been in Adelaide so for him to have a day off might actually be a blessing in disguise for him.

“When we get our team out there tomorrow, I don’t think our team will look too dissimilar to what it did at the end of last summer and we’ve had a really consistent team for a period of time and that certainly helps us perform well.”