Chennai: England opening batsman Rory Burns said on Thursday that captain Joe Root was "pretty incredible" and "leads from the front" as his side prepare to take on the world's number one side India for a four-Test series.
On the prospect of spending time in the team bubble having struggled with the situation in the English summer - and missing the Sri Lanka series to attend the birth of his daughter, Burns said, "My initial thoughts on it is we're not overlooking a cricket ground and for me, that's a massive positive. But yeah, it was obviously tough leaving my newborn daughter and wife back at home but it's part and parcel of the job and I appreciate that. So yeah, just looking forward to getting going, to be honest now and getting back into work."
Root made scores of 228 and 186 in the two-match series win against Sri Lanka earlier this month and Burns, returning to the England set-up after the birth of his first child, said that the skipper is "a leader by example".
"He obviously leads from the front, you've just seen that in this recent Test series. The bits I did catch of it, some of the highlights I saw of him and some of the sessions I saw him bat, it was pretty incredible to see him go about his business. I think at one stage he'd hit 30 out of 36 attempted sweeps or something that he was going on. So he's a leader by example in terms of how he captains the team and how he wants people to go about their batting. He just very much leads from the front and he's an easy bloke to follow, " he said.
Burns is currently in quarantine in Chennai along with other members of the touring party at the team's base in Chennai, where the First Test starts next Friday (5th February).