DESPITE spending part of the winter in Bangladesh, Durham's England Under 19 batsman Jack Burnham shrugged off yesterday's cold, saying: “I'm a northern boy.”

A day after making his best first-class score of 61, he had to sit out the third day of the match against Middlesex because of snow and rain showers.

Coming from Esh Winning, he admitted that going to Bangladesh for the Under 19 World Cup, where he made three centuries, was a big culture shock.

“There was lots of security with about 12 bodyguards involved,” he said. “Once we got knocked out people started complaining about not being allowed to leave the hotel.

“It was a new challenge for me and I think I coped well. I loved every minute of the cricket. My plan was to work on batting for long periods and scoring those hundreds gave me the mindset that I could do it.

“I've always been quite a hard hitter of the ball, but I've also done a lot of work on technique and becoming more solid in defence. I don't know yet where my strength is, but I'd also like to play in the one-day team.”

Ever since he started as a seven-year-old at Esh Winning, Burnham has been an opening batsman, and after his debut half-century for Durham when batting at six at Scarborough last August he totalled 65 in six innings as an opener in the last three matches.

“I learnt a lot from that and I think it stood me in good stead,” he said. “This season I was asked if I wanted to bat at four or six and I said four. When someone like Paul Collingwood comes up and says you will be batting ahead of him it's a big confidence booster.

“I'm very glad to have this opportunity. You never know if you are good enough to step up, but facing Liam Plunkett at Scarborough gave me the belief that I could do it.

“Then facing Steve Finn in this match was another good challenge. He wasn't as quick as Plunkett but I could see why he's an England bowler.

“Having Ben Stokes around is good. Don't tell him, but I'm a massive fan and I've watched how he goes about things. I watched every ball of his double century in South Africa.”

England selector James Whitaker had a wasted journey in travelling from Edgbaston to watch Finn bowling at Mark Stoneman, who is unbeaten on 139.

Durham will go into the final day on 295 for four in reply to 389, but the forecast is again poor.