Facing Cummins, Hazelwood is fractionally different to what you get in county: Rory Burns

England Test opener Rory Burns has opined that the volume of cricket an English cricketer plays during the domestic season is 'unsustainable' while also stating that the surfaces on which County cricket is played do not prepare cricketers for the rigours of Test cricket.

England's domestic structure, the pitches on which County cricket is played, has come under scrutiny over the last 10-12 months following poor performances of the Test side.

Burns, who was dropped from the Test set-up following a disastrous Ashes series in Australia, claimed that the pitches in County cricket promote medium pace swingers, who can nibble a bit off the surface rather than pitching it hard and extracting more from it.

This exposes them when they travel to countries like Australia, where the bowlers have to toil hard to earn wickets. The same goes for batters. With FC pitches being seamer-friendly, often a quick-fire 50-60 can prove to be game-changing, and while it's good in the short-term, it prevents young batters from learning the art of constructing the innings.

Speaking to Wisden Cricket, Burns said, "The volume of cricket we play in general is probably too much. 

"You're probably asking too much of your players to bowl at better speeds and promote that on slightly flatter surfaces, but when you go to places like Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand, hit the pitch harder so they get a bit more out of it.

"Our county cricket promotes skills-based bowlers that can swing the ball or nibble the ball on green surfaces with a Duke's ball, which obviously suits our own conditions and fulfils the needs of counties at times, rather than actually promoting guys to the Test arena. Facing Starc, Cummins, Hazelwood and Lyon is fractionally different to what you get in the county game," he said.

Burns also pointed out that an unsustainable schedule is more than just the impact of the sheer volume of cricket, as constantly switching formats doesn't help cricketers either.

"I think [the amount of cricket played] is something that maybe gets looked past.. It's easy to say this bloke has scored this amount of runs or taken this many wickets or that many catches. It's a lot more difficult to have a more realistic view of things. 'He's playing a Twenty20, he's travelling the next day, he's playing another Twenty20,' he said.

Burns signed off by citing his example from the last summer, where he endured a poor series against India despite averaging over 50 against New Zealand earlier in the summer. Burns was exclusively playing white-ball cricket between the two series, which wasn't ideal preparation for a marquee Test series.

The County season kicked off on Thursday, and Burns will be desperate to score some runs as he aims to regain his spot in the Test line-up for the upcoming three-match series against New Zealand.