Burns eyes Queensland's 'big advantage' in Shield final

Opener Joe Burns believes Queensland's experienced batting group and their intimate familiarity with a star-studded NSW bowling attack will give his side a "big advantage" in the upcoming Marsh Sheffield Shield final in Brisbane.

Ahead of the two sides squaring off across five days at Allan Border Field from Thursday, Burns also pointed out the inexperience of a young Blues batting group in contrast with the hosts, who have four players in their top five (opener Bryce Street the exception) with at least 11 Tests to their name.

All of those batsmen – Burns, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, and Matt Renshaw – have spent considerable time in Australia squads with NSW trio Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon.

Burns and Labuschagne also spent time this summer in the Test squad with Blues allrounder Sean Abbott, while all eight players as well as veteran NSW quick Trent Copeland are well-acquainted with one another at first-class level.

From Burns' viewpoint, that puts the Queensland batting group at an advantage.

"The guys have played so much against each other – we know each other really well," he said. "I think from a batters' perspective, you get a lot more out of facing bowlers over and over, rather than bowlers bowling to the batters.

"So we'll fall back on those experiences, and we've tried to talk about their bowling attack and pass on our experience to the guys who haven't played as much against them.

"It gives us a big advantage as a batting unit to have that experience, in particular when you look at the Blues batting line-up, which is a lot more inexperienced.

"It's an area we can really capitalise on in this game."

The 31-year-old boasts impressive numbers against a traditionally strong Blues side; in 16 Shield matches against them, he averages 40.27 with three hundreds and six fifties.

Labuschagne meanwhile has scored two centuries against NSW already this season, though on the flipside, Khawaja and Renshaw's records against their southern neighbours – averages of 33.85 and 27.94 respectively – make the Blues their least productive Shield opponents.

Burns revealed the role of he and fellow opener Street had been discussed as pivotal for Queensland in setting a platform for the match, particularly given the vast experience and world-class quality of new-ball pair Starc and Hazlewood.

"It's going to be a good challenge," he said. "We spoke this morning in the team meeting about starting well, so that's my job as the opening batter – to try and nullifying their bowling attack.

"They're going to ask a lot of questions, but we've prepared for these moments, and we've prepared for this calibre of bowler.

"As a player in finals you get really excited to play against the best players, to test yourself and try to stand up in those situations.

"Hopefully we can throw around some XXXX Gold with the Sheffield Shield afterwards (because) it'll be really satisfying to take down a good team."

2021 Marsh Sheffield Shield final

Queensland v NSW Blues at Allan Border Field in Brisbane, April 15-19. Play begins each morning at 9.30am AEST

Queensland squad: Usman Khawaja (c), Xavier Bartlett, Joe Burns, Brendan Doggett, Marnus Labuschagne, Michael Neser, Jimmy Peirson, Matthew Renshaw, Billy Stanlake, Bryce Street, Mitchell Swepson, Jack Wildermuth

NSW squad: Sean Abbott, Harry Conway, Trent Copeland, Jack Edwards, Matthew Gilkes, Josh Hazlewood, Lachlan Hearne, Baxter Holt, Daniel Hughes, Nathan Lyon, Peter Nevill, Kurtis Patterson, Jason Sangha, Tanveer Sangha, Mitchell Starc

The 2021 Marsh Sheffield Shield final will be broadcast LIVE in Australia on Fox Cricket & Kayo Sports. ABC Grandstand's live radio coverage will also be available on cricket.com.au & the CA Live app