It does not feel as if Jonny Bairstow is an Ashes veteran. Yet he has played more Test matches against Australia than four of his England colleagues at Edgbaston and the same number as Ben Stokes. He will know what to expect and he has glimpsed both sides of the coin.
Bairstow played in the first four Tests against Australia in 2013 when England held the ascendancy before giving way at the Kia Oval to the short-lived Chris Woakes/Simon Kerrigan experiment. Then in the last two Tests of the 2013-14 series in Melbourne and Sydney Bairstow, keeping wicket in place of Matt Prior, witnessed the desolation of Ashes humiliation. By the final Test of that series the wheels had not only come off but most of them had disappeared into the far distance as England took to the field with a side that now takes some naming (unless the likes of Scott Borthwick, Boyd Rankin and Michael Carberry spring immediately to mind).
Now Bairstow is back as a specialist batsman. He had to come back. The England middle order was ailing; he is the outstanding batsman in county cricket. In 11 first-class innings this summer he has hit one double century, four centuries and four fifties, which accounts for an average in three figures. Despite his modest Ashes record (an average of 22 in those six games) he offers a genuine threat to the Australians.
His return has prompted the question: will England let Bairstow go about his batting as he does for Yorkshire? It is the wrong question. A more relevant one is: will Australia let him go about his batting as he does for Yorkshire?
The England set-up is not so daft as to expect Bairstow to change his ways because he is wearing a different sweater. No doubt they have read Jason Gillespie’s columns here and understand the pact between Bairstow and the Yorkshire coaches, how they would undertake to leave him alone and merely invite him to seek their help and advice whenever he wishes. Given that freedom Bairstow has prospered at county level, where he is one of the most feared batsmen on the circuit.
The Australia attack is a step up from anything Bairstow has been facing recently. The two big Mitchells – Starc and Johnson – with a little help from the little Mitchell – Marsh – and Josh Hazlewood, will swing the ball at him to a full length to test out whether Bairstow is still prone to whip it towards midwicket before he is properly set. They will bounce him too, mindful of his early problems in Test cricket against the West Indian duo of Kemar Roach and Tino Best.
At his best, and most uncluttered, Bairstow is far more likely to cope now. However, the transition to Test level can be more difficult for a batsman with maverick tendencies than for the more orthodox player. Most cricketers, upon selection, do not even think about adjusting their technique but sometimes the unorthodox do consider that possibility; occasionally they are encouraged to do so, which can be very confusing.
Two extreme examples spring to mind. Neil Fairbrother is now an agent with ISM and has a third of the England Test team on his books. In his playing days he was a mercurial batsman for Lancashire and a very talented one too, but this was only obvious at international level when he was playing one-day cricket (currently Bairstow has an impressive, though oddly truncated record in ODI cricket as well – he averages 40 with a rapid strike rate in nine matches). Fairbrother played 10 Tests for England in the 1990s and averaged a paltry 15. In part this was because he was not sure whether to trust his county method or whether to try to play as he thought a Test batsman should. Such confusion can be devastating.
At the other end of the spectrum comes Kevin Pietersen. There were questions at the start back in 2005: can he play like that at Test level and get away with it? The answer was an emphatic yes, though Pietersen was streetwise and gifted enough to do some fine-tuning along the way. As for Bairstow, we wait to see. It would be a major surprise – and disappointment – if he did not trust his instincts. Consequently his return to Ashes cricket is unlikely to be dull.
