A spiky Jonny Bairstow declared his pride at driving England towards what would be a vital Ashes victory at Old Trafford, labelling the criticism over his form this summer “out of order”.
Bairstow scored a superb unbeaten 99 on day three of the Fourth Test, stranded one run shy of his century when James Anderson was the last man out as England posted a daunting total of 592. The home side must win the game to set up a decider at the Oval next week and are well on their way to doing so after taking four top order wickets on Friday evening to leave Australia still 162 runs from making England bat again.
The 33-year-old suffered a horrific leg injury in a freak golf course accident at the end of last summer and only returned to the side in June, with his keeping, in particular, having come under particular scrutiny across the first three Ashes Tests.
Bairstow has looked in better order in Manchester, though, and took a stunning catch to dismiss Mitchell Marsh on the first evening before hammering his 99 off just 82 balls on the third afternoon.
“You’ve got to have a bit of perspective on it,” Bairstow told the BBC. “I’ve not played in months and I’ve not kept properly in three years. There’s obviously been a lot of talk and things like that, some of which I think has been a bit out of order to be honest but that’s part and parcel of people having an opinion.
“There are times when if people had a conversation with you individually and found out a bit more about the injury or the ankle and how everything’s going, they might have a slightly different view or perspective on it."
Bairstow did not return to first-class action for Yorkshire until the start of May, missing the winter tours to New Zealand and Pakistan, the T20 World Cup triumph in Australia and the Indian Premier League.
Despite his lack of game time, the 33-year-old’s incredible form as a specialist batter last summer meant he was always certain to be recalled in time for the Ashes, but Harry Brook’s emergence in his absence meant the clearest route back into the side was as wicketkeeper in place of Ben Foakes.
Bairstow made a run-a-ball 78 in the first innings of the Ashes opener at Edgbaston, before he had kept in the series, but then failed to pass 20 in his next five innings. More pressingly, though, the Yorkshireman was fallible behind the stumps, squandering eight chances of varying difficulty, leading some to call for Foakes’s return.
“I’m delighted to be out there, I’m incredibly proud and a proud man to be taking the field after, well,” he added. “I’m still only 10 months post-operation now. To have the injury that I had and back playing international sport within nine months is something I’m incredibly proud of because it wasn’t necessarily the easiest thing to come back from and there’s been a lot of testing times with it.
“Naturally when you have an injury of that significance, there’s a chance you don’t play sport again.”
