Bairstow gives timely reminder to England of his remarkable talents

Yorkshire may not thank me for saying it, seeing as he is their red-ball captain, and some might think that the ship has sailed, but could Jonny Bairstow still do a job for England?

- by Chris Waters

REMEMBER ME?: Jonny Bairstow showed good form last season for Yorkshire and in a recent white-ball tournament in South Africa - a timely reminder of what he could do for England.

I personally see no reason why not.To watch Bairstow smash 34 in an over in South Africa last week, taking the former Yorkshire player Keshav Maharaj to the cleaners in the SA20, was to be reminded of the fact there are few better batsmen in the English game.

Bairstow hit five sixes and a four against the left-arm spinner en route to an unbeaten 85 from 45 balls as Sunrisers Eastern Cape whacked Pretoria Capitals.

It came on the very day that Jamie Smith - preferred to Bairstow as England's wicketkeeper - played his horror shot against Marnus Labuschagne in the Sydney Test, gifting his wicket in one of the lowlights of a desperate series.

Smith finished the Ashes with 211 runs from 10 innings at an average of 23.44, an average eclipsed even by Jofra Archer.

Others used in the top-seven fared even worse, Ben Stokes averaging 18.40, Ben Duckett 20.20 and Ollie Pope 20.83, while Zak Crawley was scarcely an improvement with 27.30.

Would not Bairstow, realistically, have done better?