Bairstow’s glove affair rekindled
REPORTS JOE ROOT will restore Jonny Bairstow to the role of Test wicketkeeper just a week after suggesting he favoured giving the job to Jos Buttler long term, but denied it was as a result of “player power”.
Bairstow reacted badly to the prospect of losing the gloves, mooted after he was stood down from the role in Southampton on account of a fractured finger.
Despite insisting it was not a climbdown, rather a case of “managing workload across formats”, the England captain has now given Bairstow the job for the final Test of the summer.
“Jonny has had the gloves for a long time and done exceptionally well for a good period of that,” said Root. “It is definitely not player power. I made it clear if he’s going to be the Test wicketkeeper, he is going to have to keep working really hard.
“But he deserves the opportunity to keep wicket in Test cricket and Jos Buttler has done exactly the same in white-ball cricket. Why mess with something that has worked so well for so long?”
Just a week ago, Root had reacted to questions about Bairstow by saying that there were “no guarantees in international cricket” adding: “You don’t always get what you want.”
But it seems fears about the negative effect it could have on Bairstow’s batting – he had his poorest Test of the summer with the bat – have caused an almost immediate rethink.
Changes behind the stumps are not the only questions that will confront selectors going forward, whatever happens in this final Test of a compelling series against India.
For while the retirement of Alastair Cook will effectively shadow most things this week at the Oval, underneath confusion reigns for all that for him to bow out on a winning note was a huge motivating factor going into this Test.
“I am sad he is going and he’s going to be very hard to replace but it is up to us as a team to give him an opportunity to go in the best way possible,” said Root, below.
“Far from a distraction, it will act as a great motivator for the group this week. It means a lot to the whole dressing room and they will be desperate to do everything they can to give him a great send-off.
“There aren’t many people who go about things in a better way than he does.
“He’s always got time for everyone and that’s a great quality to have in any walk of life, never mind a high-pressure environment like international cricket.
“I’ll miss him being around. Not just for his runs and what he adds to the team but him as a person as well.”
England lead 3-1 and sealed the series with victory at Southampton in the fourth Test but Root promised that there would be no let-up in intensity against Virat Kohli’s side.
He added: “It has been an area we’ve not got right in the past and to beat the No1 side in the world and make it 4-1 would send a really strong statement of where we’re at and where we are looking to go as a team.
“It would sum up a good summer of cricket for us in difficult conditions.” England will this morning name an unchanged team.
Moeen Ali will once again bat at No3 – as he did in the second innings of the fourth Test – yet he too was given “no guarantees” beyond this final Test of the summer.
Keaton Jennings’ run in the team looks to have received a boost from Cook’s retirement rather than his own contributions. And Adil Rashid continues to be picked seemingly more on account of the aggro caused by his selection in the first place and in spite of his captain seemingly having little faith in using him.
“Mo is going to be batting at No3 for this game. But we’ll sit down at the end of the series and make a decision moving forward,” said Root. “Ultimately it’s about winning this series as well as we can and trying to win 4-1. From that point onwards, we’ll look at Sri Lanka and what gives us the best chance of winning there.” His elevation allows Root to abandon the experiment of going in first drop – a tactic that coach Trevor Bayliss encouraged the captain to take on despite his own reluctance. Yet even then, nothing was “set in stone” according to Root. And so to Jennings and the now accelerated search for another opener? “We’ve not looked past this series. Keaton has a great opportunity this week to show everyone how good he is,” said Root. “I thought the way he played in the second innings was brilliant. Hopefully he can take confidence from that and really lay a marker down now. But [Cook’s retirement] opens the door to someone at the top of the order. “There’s a number of county games left and people should be looking at that as a real opportunity to put their hand up for an exciting winter.” India, who appear set to rest Ravi Ashwin with leftarmer Ravi Jadeja coming in, will be keen to exact revenge for a close-run defeat in Southampton. And they will take heart from England’s recent record in dead-rubbers in series that have already been won or lost. Since August 2011, they have contested 12 and won none of them.
THE OVAL LINE-UPS Cook, Jennings, Moeen, Root (capt), Bairstow (wkt), Stokes, Buttler, Curran, Rashid, Broad, Anderson Dhawan, Rahul, Pujara, Kohli (capt), Rahane, Pandya, Pant (wkt), Jadeja, Shami, Ishant, Bumrah J Wilson & K Dharmasena Sky Sports 2, 10am