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Jonny Bairstow is yet to feature in the Test series in Sri Lanka but now fit again after a spell of injury says: ‘I’m working on all my skills.’
Jonny Bairstow is yet to feature in the Test series in Sri Lanka but now fit again after a spell of injury says: ‘I’m working on all my skills.’ Photograph: Stu Forster/Getty Images
Jonny Bairstow is yet to feature in the Test series in Sri Lanka but now fit again after a spell of injury says: ‘I’m working on all my skills.’ Photograph: Stu Forster/Getty Images

Jonny Bairstow bides time and works hard as he looks to beat England drop

This article is more than 5 years old

The wicketkeeper-batsman is responding in the right way after Ben Foakes was preferred to him for the second Sri Lanka Test

English cricketers do not get dropped as often as they used to be. For example Alastair Cook, Marcus Trescothick and Kevin Pietersen (if we restrict this to purely cricketing criteria) were never dropped from the Test team.

This is not always a good thing but the modern thread of consistency is better than the insecurity of previous generations when so many England cricketers turned up for a Test match on the assumption that it might well be their last. Joe Root was dropped for the Sydney Test of January 2014 and it galvanised him to make sure that this never happened again. Ian Bell was jettisoned after the Sabina Park match of February 2009 and before long he returned a more dedicated cricketer. Something similar applied to Andrew Strauss in 2007. A bit of time for contemplation and reassessment can often be a good thing and the best players always return. Even Ricky Ponting was dropped.

In this series, two talismanic English cricketers – Stuart Broad and Jonny Bairstow – have been overlooked without doing anything wrong. And the signs are that they are both responding in the most appropriate manner. They do not need to agonise too much since their form has not disintegrated. They just have to see the bigger picture and bide their time. They appear to be doing that. Curiously even without playing – or because they are not playing and not sulking – their standing within the squad may actually be enhanced.

It has been a tough three months for Bairstow in particular, culminating in his omission at Pallekele when he was deemed fit to play. Untimely injuries have upset a smooth career path. So how has he reacted? “I just went out there and trained hard,” he says. “Just to try to get back in the team. That’s what I want to do. It’s difficult. No one wants to be not playing. The last two and a half years I’ve been in the team and I was in the top 10 batters in the world – and then you’re not playing. But … that’s part and parcel of sport. It’s good for the squad with such competition for places.

“It’s all about how you react to it. You react by going away, working hard, training hard and doing the right things around the guys because you don’t want to be sulking around them and not helping the lads out. If you’re sapping the energy from the group, that’s not a good thing.”

Has he ever known an England side with so many players pushing to get in the final XI? “Well, yes. The one-day side. When we got to No 1 in the world we had exactly the same situation.”

Currently it is Alex Hales, a proven performer, who is the unlucky man to be missing out now that Bairstow himself has superseded him as an opening batsman.

In the Test arena Bairstow understands his current plight with Ben Foakes as the preferred keeper but he does not accept that this will always be the situation. “You don’t want to accept that. You don’t know what’s around the corner. So I’m still working on both my primary skills just as I’ve done for the last three years. You don’t know how the make-up of sides works or how injuries happen. So yes, I’m working on all my skills.” Which means that his wicketkeeping gloves are still at the top of the cricket bag.

However, one suspects he is also buying into the new outlook. “At the end of the day you want your best 11 players and then to find how those players fit into your team,” he says. This hints at a new flexibility among the management and in the mind of Bairstow, who will surely do anything and bat anywhere to get back into the team.

In fact no one doubts Bairstow and Broad will be playing again soon, though it is unlikely that both can return in Colombo even though Sam Curran seems unlikely to be fit for the final Test. Yet both appear to be coping with their temporary demotions in exemplary style. The England team invited some old players to join them in a fundraising quiz on Monday evening and there was Broad to the fore in the Jeremy Paxman/Alexander Armstrong role as one of the question-masters while Bairstow enthusiastically tried to keep his team in the race, cunningly feigning ignorance when he was the answer to one of the questions. There was much laughter and no sulking.

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