Over the due course of the last year, England’s Jonny Bairstow has been simply phenomenal. The England wicketkeeper, who was earlier, blamed for not playing up to his true potential has finally risen up to the challenge. Bairstow made a comeback to the England side last year in a decider against New Zealand, where he finished off the game for England to decide the series.
But Bairstow’s main credentials were realized when he got to his maiden test century against South Africa at Cape Town. Since that, there has been no looking back what so ever and the recent ton against Sri Lanka at Leeds just makes the dominance of Bairstow evident. When he gets going, he can be totally destructive. Post the first test, Bairstow spoke about his desire to succeed in limited overs as well for England.
“I want to play every format I can. Absolutely,” Bairstow said. “I want to play all forms of cricket for England, that’s an ambition I have. I want to succeed in that. If that opportunity does arise, I don’t see any reason why Jos and I can’t play on the same side. I think that would be an exciting prospect with the likes of Stokes, Jos and myself in that middle-order.”
The hard-hitting wicketkeeper-batsman said that he was willing to bat anywhere in the order. “I’ll bat wherever. “No. 5 is the position I bat for Yorkshire and keep wicket so if that opportunity comes up, it comes up,” he said. “I’m happy at seven. As we know, the team is pretty balanced with Stokes at six and Mo at eight and myself at seven. I think that is a really good position to be in, a good balance. The rest, I don’t really want to think about, to be honest because, at this moment in time, I’m just happy, playing my cricket, seeing the ball, trying to catch the ball,” said Bairstow.
Reflecting on his good form since the last few months, he added, “I didn’t go on and score big runs in the UAE but I was happy with the way I was playing. South Africa, the way I contributed there with both bat and gloves I was pretty pleased with. And it was important I started this season well. I’m pleased with the way it has gone for Yorkshire and started for England but we know it will be tough for the rest of the series against Sri Lanka and who knows what will happen against Pakistan.”