Bairstow's Rise Is Truly Remarkable

Richard Edwards finds a former England keeper in awe of the current man behind the stumps, and not just for his glovework

- Richard Edwards

It took Jack Russell eight long years of work behind the stumps for his county before he was deemed sufficiently experienced to play for his country. Jonny Bairstow, in contrast, has had to do his growing up in a very different environment.

The Yorkshireman was first brought in as a wicketkeeper during the ill fated Ashes tour of 2013/14, taking up the gauntlets as England looked to strengthen a batting line-up that had long since been exposed as wafer-thin by a marauding Mitchell Johnson.

It wasn’t a roaring success but the blame could hardly be laid at Bairstow’s door, with England in complete disarray by the time he entered the fray.

An injury to Jos Buttler during England’s 2016 series against Pakistan then handed him an additional opportunity behind the stumps, after calls for him to hand back the gloves following a mixed showing against Sri Lanka earlier that year.

He hasn’t looked back since, grasping his chance with both hands and firmly establishing himself as one of England’s most reliable and consistent performers with both bat and gloves.

It has been a remarkable transformation given the doubts that England harboured over his ability to do both jobs as recently as last summer. That series against Sri Lanka highlighted the kind of flaws that were to be expected of a keeper who had spent so little time behind the stumps in competitive cricket.