‘Stats of my keeping were very good’

How most of us must long for the days, those simpler days without Covid-19, when Jonny Bairstow’s position in England’s Test team seemed one of the world’s most vexing issues. It wasn’t then, of course, and it isn’t now. Nonetheless, what to do with Bairstow in Test cricket remains a conundrum that England’s management have, as yet, not solved.

He was in and out of their plans throughout the winter, playing just one of the six completed Test matches and being left out of two of the winter’s three Test squads. Initially, he was dropped for the Test series in New Zealand in November, but as it happened, he was then asked to stay on after the limited overs series to cover for an injury to Joe Denly, raising hopes of an imminent recall to the side. Once Denly was deemed fit, however, Bairstow returned home.

He was then included in the squad for the South Africa series and played the Boxing Day Test at Centurion as a replacement for Ollie Pope who was unwell. Scores of 1 and 9 were not enough to keep Pope out of the side once the Surrey youngster was back fit and Bairstow ran the drinks for the last three Tests. He then asked to be rested for the aborted Sri Lanka series, with his place in the squad going to Ben Foakes.

Although there is little doubt that Bairstow is now a world-class wicket-keeper, his position in the Test team has become uncertain after a sustained fallow period with the bat. Since a stellar year in 2016, when he averaged 58.80 from 17 Tests, his calendar year average has steadily declined from 34.31 to 30.45 and then to 18.55 last year. His last Test hundred came in November 2018.

Part of the issue with Bairstow has been the confusion of what role England want him to play. Should he play as a specialist batsman or as a wicket-keeper batsman? In which position should he bat? Should that position depend on whether he has the gloves or not?

Since the start of 2017, Bairstow has batted in each position from number three, where he scored that November 2018 hundred in Colombo, to number eight and has lost the gloves twice, to Ben Foakes in Sri Lanka, initially through injury and, once returned to the side, because of Foakes’ good form and then to Jos Buttler in New Zealand this winter. It’s been difficult to keep up.

For his part, although Bairstow says he simply wants to be part of the Test team in whichever role he can get, it is clear that, given the choice, he still wants to be considered as a wicket-keeper. “I want to play. I’ve always said that.” he said. “Over a period of time, I’ve been really happy with my keeping. That was the bit at the start of my career that people questioned but people have stopped speaking about it over the last couple of years.

“Statistically, I’ve looked at the stats and my stats are very good. So there’s no reason why that isn’t an area I want to be coming back into. Similarly, with my batting. Look, I’m not ruling anything out. I want to keep my options very much open. I’m someone who has always been positive about playing. There have always been challenges that have been asked, whether that’s been keeping wicket or batting in certain position and circumstances. I’d like to think I’ve risen to those challenges.”

Bairstow admits that he was disappointed to be dropped for the tour to New Zealand at the start of the winter after a poor Ashes series with the bat. The gloves were given to Buttler even though his returns against Australia – average of 23.77 – were similar to Bairstow’s, who averaged 24.70 in that series. It is difficult to argue that the case for Buttler as England’s Test wicket-keeper was more compelling than Bairstow’s.

“I was disappointed at the time,” he said. “My stats of my keeping were very good and I didn’t feel like I had done anything wrong with my keeping and I was getting complimented highly by people on that. When you think about getting back in you can only be judged on your last performances and I like to think they were good and I hope they will get me back in the side as long as I score enough runs.”

Bairstow has been back in training for a couple of weeks, working with Yorkshire’s head coach Andrew Gale at Headingley. He is heading up to Durham this week to train with Ben Stokes, Mark Wood and Brydon Carse, the first time he has faced bowlers rather than bowling machines or the dog thrower. Stokes and Wood hurling them down at 90mph plus will be quite some challenge first up.

The time away from the game has been a chance for Bairstow to “reset” which is what Ed Smith, the chief selector, said he wanted him to do when dropping him for the New Zealand tour. “I feel good,” he said. “I said about not going to Sri Lanka because I felt like I did need a bit of a break. I’d had something like six nights at home [from] October to February. So that naturally takes its toll on a long winter. It came at a decent time and there’s going to be a freshness coming back in.”

It remains to be seen whether Bairstow is recalled to the Test side for the West Indies series but there is no indication, given Buttler was selected for the Sri Lanka tour, that the incumbent is going to be relieved of the gloves. There will, at least, be an intra-squad game between an enlarged group of England players ahead of the West Indies series during which Bairstow can press his claims.

There is also the added unknown of whether players will be able to be part of both the red and white-ball squads or if they need to remain separate to reduce the possibility that Covid-19 is spread between the two groups. If they need to remain separate, Smith will have decide whether to include Bairstow in the white-ball group, where he is an automatic pick, or the red-ball. If Bairstow is included in the latter, but doesn’t get in the final eleven, he will then miss out on white-ball action.

“I think first and foremost we need to get this bubble right with the Test squad, because that’s going to be the first test of the process,” Bairstow said. “Once those procedures have been implemented then we’ll start talking about the crossover from the red ball to the white ball camp. People coming in and out of the bubble. We’ve seen the government guidelines and they’re changing every week in terms of what you can and can’t do.

“We’ve still go 3 weeks until the first Test starts. There’s still a period of time after that until the one-dayers start. At this moment in time, it’s still far ahead to be wondering if we can chop and change because we don’t know what the current situation will be in the country in three weeks’ time.”

Whatever the outcome of the next few weeks, Test cricket still remains a focus for Bairstow. Given he is only 30 years-old, and given the obvious talent he has, England hope he can return to being a significant player in Test cricket at some stage. Right now, though, he remains in Test limbo.