Durham coach Lewis salutes impressive Burnham performance

The 19-year-old was the leading run-scorer at the Under-19s World Cup during the winter, and made 61 after captain Paul Collingwood asked him where he wanted to bat.

Lewis labelled his innings as “excellent” and spoke about how the number four spot is a position with “a lot of responsibility”, but Burnham certainly comes across as one to stand up to any challenge thrown his way.

“Jack (Burnham) played an excellent innings. We gave him the four spot, which holds a lot of responsibility, and it requires hundreds, and he has done well so far,” Lewis said.

“We need some conversions at some point, but we can’t be disappointed with what he is doing at the moment, he is doing great and he should go from strength to strength.

“He is one for the present as far as we’re concerned, I don’t think we should hang around too long, if he is good enough then he should in the side.”

Durham’s game with Middlesex suffered drastically because of the weather, and only 14 balls were able to be bowled in the final two days.

The visitors were bowled out for 389 on the second morning of the game, and in response, Durham reached 305-4, and Lewis believes it was a good contest between bat and ball.

He added: “It was a good game of cricket for two days. I thought both sides played some good cricket on a good surface.

“Neither side could take a grip in the game, and both of us were ready to play two more hard days of cricket, but unfortunately we didn’t really get the chance.”