Jonny Bairstow has been backed to rediscover his form by England coach Brendon McCullum. Bairstow made 0 and 4 in the 434-run shellacking in Rajkot, continuing an awkward fourth tour of India in which is he averaging 17.00 from six innings.
Ben Stokes predicted big things for Jonny Bairstow at the start of the series. With Ben Foakes taking the gloves, the England captain believed a role exclusively as a batter could unlock a Bairstow purple patch akin to the summer of 2022 when he became the original Bazball poster boy. “We saw what we managed to get out of him, and I don’t want him to worry about anything other than batting at five, getting runs and what’s in front of him in the here and now,” Stokes said. It has not worked out as planned.
With England trailing 2-1 in the series there will be selection decisions to ponder ahead of the fourth Test in Ranchi, which begins on Friday, but McCullum gave a strong indication Bairstow will retain his place in the XI for what would be his 99th Test cap.
Dan Lawrence is the only spare batter in the squad, having replaced Harry Brook who pulled out of the tour for a family matter and is unlikely to return. Lawrence, however, is yet to feature under McCullum and Stokes.
Jonny Bairstow career under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum
England want to give Jonny Bairstow every chance to access the explosiveness of two summers ago. He struck four centuries in Stokes’ first six matches, including twin hundreds in the one-off Test against India at Edgbaston. His 681 runs were scored at a rate of 96.59, and an average of 75.66.
He has struggled to match those numbers upon returning from a broken ankle that kept him out of the final Test against South Africa and the 2022-23 winter tours of Pakistan and New Zealand. Since the start of the 2023 summer, his 424 runs have come at 30.28, with just three fifties albeit one an unbeaten 99 against Australia at Old Trafford.
His first-innings duck at Rajkot was his eighth against India. But it is worth noting his dismissal second time around – lbw missing a sweep off Ravindra Jadeja – was the first time he has been out playing an attacking shot.
However though the England management and captain has supported Jonny Bairstow to come good in the remainder of the series Former England player Geoffrey Boycott has lashed out at Jonny Bairstow for his poor form and the lack of application while playing sweep shots.
Jonny Bairstow is a fantastic straight hitter but..- Geoffrey Boycott critical on the batter
Former England opening batter Geoffrey Boycott has called Jonny Bairstow out for playing the sweep shot in the fourth innings of the third Test against India at the Niranjan Shah Stadium in Rajkot. Boycott observed that Bairstow plays the ball straight well, but reckons that the shot was down to pressure.
Bairstow, who has struggled in all three Tests, played the sweep shot when on four against left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja. The keeper-batter contemplated a review after speaking to Joe Root briefly but walked back without taking it.
In his column for The Telegraph, the 83-year-old wrote:
“This match alone all three got out LBW sweeping at balls pitched on the stumps. Bairstow is never a good sweeper of the ball. He gets very few runs with it and has got out before in India trying to sweep. Jonny is a fantastic straight hitter of a cricket ball but pressure makes batsmen do silly things,”
The Yorkshire lad felt England’s struggles in India are down to the middle-order underperforming, given they average only 20 runs each. On this, he wrote:
“The new young spinners have done okay. It is the batting that is not firing. The middle order has been the engine room for England for the last two years but at the moment Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes have not contributed enough runs and too often they have given their wickets away by trying to score too quickly. Any team would struggle with a middle order averaging only 20 runs each,”
Having conceded a 126-run lead after their first innings, England were playing catch-up cricket for the remaining part of the game. With 557 set for the tourists to win, they collapsed under the weight of it to slip to a 434-run loss.
Boycott also reflected that Ben Stokes and Joe Root didn’t need to play the reverse in the fourth innings as scoring was not the priority at that stage. He added:
“Root and Stokes tried to save the match by defending for 40 and 39 balls but then inexplicably couldn’t resist trying to sweep balls pitched on the stumps. Why? Runs were of no use at that stage of the game,”
England’s premier batter Root finds himself under pressure after managing only 77 runs in six innings at 12.83.
Ben Stokes, England’s captain, has promised that his team will park the disappointment of their crushing 434-run loss in the third Test in Rajkot, and move onto Ranchi later this week fully focused on bouncing back to claim a 3-2 series victory. England need to win the last two Tests to clinch the series, with India leading the five-match series 2-1. It will be interesting to see if they make changes to their playing XI for the fourth Test against India, which will start on February 23.