aaThe 30-year-old England wicket-keeper batsman Jonny Bairstow wants to return to the Test wicketkeeping position as he feels that his stats are well enough.
Jonny Bairstow made his international debut in 2011, but he made his Test debut in the 2012 home summer. Apart from playing 77 ODIs and 37 T20Is, Bairstow has also played 70 Tests till the date out of which he kept wicket in 48 Tests.
After the 2019 Ashes Series at home, Bairstow was removed from the Test wicket-keeper role. While he was dropped from the away Test series against New Zealand, he toured in South Africa where he played only the first game of the four-match Test series. But his last Test wicketkeeping role was the last game of 2019 Ashes Series which was played at The Oval (London) in last September.
Bairstow was also dropped from the last Test tour in Sri Lanka which was later postponed before the beginning of that series due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, he is very happy with his performances as a Test wicket-keeper.
According to ESPNcricinfo, Bairstow said, “Over a period of time, I have been really happy with my keeping. That was the part of my game which, at the start of my career, people questioned. But people have stopped speaking about it over the last couple of years.”
My stats are very good: Jonny Bairstow
While Bairstow was disappointed for losing his Test wicket-keeper role, he feels that his stats are enough to prove his return to the Test wicket-keeper role.
Bairstow added, “My stats are very good. So there’s no reason why that isn’t an area I want to be coming back into. I was disappointed to lose the gloves at the time. My stats were very good and I didn’t feel like I had done anything wrong with my keeping. I was getting complimented highly by people on that.”
As a wicket-keeper, while Bairstow has played 48 Tests, he has taken 169 catches and also made 12 stumpings. He is currently the fifth most successful English Test wicket-keeper (according to the number of dismissals made) while all the top four English wicket-keepers played more than 75 Tests.
Playing as a wicket-keeper batsman, Bairstow scored 3028 Test runs (average 37.85), including five centuries, which is the fourth-most runs for an English Test wicket-keeper batsman.
On Wednesday (17th June), the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) will announce the 30-member Test squad for the upcoming home Test series against West Indies. Bairstow, who was in the 55-member training squad ahead of the delayed home summer, feels his last performances were good enough to return to the Test squad immediately.
Bairstow claimed, “When you think about getting back in, you can only be judged on your last performances and I like to think they were good. I hope they will get me back in the side as long as I score enough runs.”
England vs West Indies Test series will begin on 8th July while the ECB will announce the 20-member final squad for the Test series just before the beginning of this series.