Alan Knott, one of the greatest wicketkeepers, once concluded his best session behind the stumps for England took place against Pakistan in the searing heat of the subcontinent. His Kent colleague, Derek Underwood, bowled from one end throughout and Knott recalled how on a very flat track he never took a single ball from him. “But I expected to take everyone,” he said.
Wicketkeepers have to concentrate for every minute of the day in the field and that is how Jonny Bairstow likes it. He could walk into this England side as a specialist batsman – already he has scored more runs in a calendar year than any keeper in history and there are still six Tests to go but he wants to keep those gloves.
Keeping here in Dhaka, where the second Test starts on Friday, is so much more difficult than in Perth for example, where the bounce is generous and true and where the wicketkeeper spends most of the day 25 metres from the stumps. Bairstow reckons the Chittagong Test was probably his best as a keeper. And it was very tough there thanks to extreme heat and unpredictable bounce. “Standing up to the stumps from the start you did not know which way the ball would go,”he said. “Some would turn a lot; some would skid on. And you can’t anticipate that; you just have to watch the ball off the pitch.”
Moreover it is incredibly uncomfortable when weighed down by extraneous pieces of equipment. Bairstow’s own temperature is bound to be raised by the fact he has to wear a helmet at all times when keeping up to the stumps. This is now a decree from the ECB. “In the UAE last winter I often wore a cap, sunglasses and a gumshield but that is not an option any more. With a helmet on you have to get in a slightly different position behind the stumps”.
You would think he may like to relinquish the gloves occasionally and chill out (metaphorically) down at third man, like a Tendulkar or a Boycott used to do, but he said: “I really enjoy being in the game for every single ball.”
Being the wicketkeeper adds a bit of additional insurance to his Test place, not that he needs it. His determination to keep going may be increased by the pain of being dropped.
“I missed out for 18 months after the Ashes and I had to earn my place back and now I just want to play as many matches as I can,” he said. He is unlikely to have any enthusiasm for the notion of being rotated, either.
Now the Test matches are coming thick and fast and they will not be played on surfaces, like the one mentioned by Knott, where the ball seldom reaches the keeper. This winter will be the sternest test of Bairstow’s stamina as well as his burgeoning keeping skills.
