Jonny Bairstow: 'My game's in the best place it's been'

[ASFN Admin]

Jonny Bairstow belongs to a rare club. As cricket’s three international formats diverge, Bairstow is unusual in having thrived in them all. He is a World Cup winner, scoring successive centuries in England’s must-win group games against India and New Zealand in 2019. He has flourished in the Indian Premier League, averaging more than 40 in his two campaigns while scoring at great haste. And he has enjoyed an extended period of Test success: over 18 Tests from December 2015 until the summer of 2017, Bairstow scored 1,590 at 58.9 apiece, a period in which only Steve Smith scored more Test runs worldwide. The trouble, of course, is that these periods of bountiful red- and white-ball runs have not overlapped. Since 2017, Bairstow has shifted his stance to be more leg-side of the ball to open up the off side. This has made him one of the best limited-overs batsmen in the world, but caused him to be newly vulnerable in Test cricket. Since becoming an ODI regular during the Champions Trophy in 2017, Bairstow averages six against balls hitting his stumps in Test cricket. He averages just 18 in 10 Tests since the start of 2019. And so Bairstow’s recall against Sri Lanka is an opportunity that, aged 31, it looked like he might not get again. He was omitted from England’s aborted tour to Sri Lanka last year, since when he has played only three first-class innings. But the unavailability of other players – Rory Burns is missing the tour with his wife due to give birth; Ollie Pope is in Sri Lanka to continue his rehab, though he will bat in today’s intra-squad game – and the sense that Bairstow is too good not to add to his 70 Test caps have combined to give him another chance. “I genuinely think my game’s in the best place it’s been,” Bairstow said from Sri Lanka. “Obviously there’s been periods when I’ve wanted to work on different bits and people have said my technique has changed. Look, that’s fine: techniques do change; they’re ever-evolving. The work I’ve put into my game and the runs I’ve got left in the tank over the next three, four, five – however many years it may be – is definitely something I believe can be a huge contributor to English cricket in the Test arena. I’ve proved it in the past.” The last time Bairstow did so was in England’s last Test in Sri Lanka in November 2018. Recalled to bat at three, Bairstow’s 110 helped England complete a 3-0 series win. He is poised to bat at three again this series. “If that is the case, then bring it on,” he said. “I think I’ve batted a few times at three and generally done all right there.

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