If Jonny Bairstow plays the remainder of England’s series against India, the final Test at Dharamsala will be a celebratory one, marking an achievement that didn’t seem realistic a few years ago: the Yorkshireman will become just the 17th Englishman to acquire 100 Test caps.
Ben Stokes got there himself in Rajkot, his way a lot more straightforward even if there have been off-field issues. No one has questioned Stokes’s presence in England’s best XI for close to a decade. For Bairstow, who began 12 years ago, it has been a journey of endless interrogations. Does he take the gloves or not? Where should he bat? Isn’t it Dan Lawrence’s turn now?
And so it adds up that, as we get closer to the big day, when tributes usually flood in about a storied résumé, Brendon McCullum has been fielding questions from the press about Bairstow’s place in the lineup. England’s head coach has predictably geed up his man – who is averaging 17 in the series – stating that “we’ve got to keep on giving him confidence and block out a lot of the external noise”. Even if more low scores follow in the fourth Test in Ranchi, it would be a surprise to see Bairstow left stranded on 99. This management group back their boys to the hilt, and they have to when this whole thing is about stripping away the fear and letting loose. Alex Lees is the only specialist batter to have lost his place since McCullum and Stokes took over, and that was after he had been given a whole summer.
So perhaps a few sweet whispers from Baz and Ben will be enough, extending what has been a strange career. There were the initial years when he was the young pup filling in for a team of all-timers, delivering scores of 95 and 54 against a hall-of-fame South Africa attack at Lord’s in 2012 when Kevin Pietersen was on the naughty step. It wasn’t until 2016 that he brought up his first century, in Cape Town, and became the go-to gloveman, scoring the most runs by a Test wicketkeeper in a calendar year. Then came his establishment as a limited-overs opener and the idea that he couldn’t have it all; success as a ball-striker at the top of the ODI order coincided with a downturn while lower down in the Test one. Ben Foakes and Jos Buttler had their goes behind the stumps and Bairstow spent the entirety of 2020 out of the Test side.
But England’s selectors still couldn’t resist the occasional late-night “You up?”. In India three years ago he was tasked with coming in at one-down and promptly reeled off three ducks in four innings. It seemed an endpoint until he was resurrected just months later against the same opposition in August 2021. Then came the arrival of McCullum and Stokes two summers ago to piece together the image of white-ball Bairstow nailing it against the red. Ensconced at No 5, he was ordered by his captain to keep pummelling the ball into the stands during their remarkable 179-run partnership at Trent Bridge against New Zealand. Three more centuries followed in the space of a month, his work over that period of three Tests done at better than a run a ball. After a decade, it had all finally clicked. And then he broke a leg.
That infamous golfing accident prompted the stirring arrival of Harry Brook, the new kid’s output so ridiculous that he couldn’t just be a placeholder when Bairstow returned after a winter of watching on. For both to fit in against Australia, Foakes – who had done little wrong – had to go, with Bairstow to keep. One argument to make is that this was another strong show of faith from England’s management in Bairstow, backing him like they had the previous year. Another, which is stronger with hindsight, is that the additional workload of keeping was probably not helpful to a player coming back from a potentially career-ending injury.
He has produced starts in the ongoing series, staying leg-side of the ball and battering the off across his innings of 25 and 26 in Vizag. But everyone has a plan until they meet Jasprit Bumrah. The quick did for him there; the spinners did it in Rajkot. All of a sudden, that promise of a big score turns into a lowly average and a record for the most Test ducks against India.
Bairstow will line up in the next Test and, if aware of the musings regarding his future, he may well channel it all into a screw-the-haters hundred, à la Colombo 2018. Even with his struggles in India, it remains a possibility because of his obvious resilience. To get to 100 Tests demands that you keep fighting back. He lost his spot under every regime before this one. He went more than three years without a ton (twice). He wondered if he’d ever walk again after his leg break. He’s had to get used to an on-off relationship with the gloves. Bairstow has kept going when the easy way out would’ve been giving it up a few years ago to stick to the white-ball route. As he closes in on a century, another comeback is required.
