At the start of the 1958–59 season, Burge made 74, 94 and 64 in his first three innings. Although he made only 25, 7 and 11 in the last three innings before the Tests, all against Peter May's touring Englishmen, national captain Ian Craig was ruled out due to hepatitis. This gave Burge a recall for the First Test against England in his home town of Brisbane. He made two in his only innings and was dropped again after Australia took an eight-wicket win. Returning to Queensland duties, he initially failed to capitalise on his starts, with four scores between 30 and 60 in five innings, before striking 101 and 171 against South Australia and Victoria respectively. However, this was not enough for him to gain a recall for the later Tests of the season. Burge ended with season with 764 runs at 50.93.