Spill takes shine off Bairstow triumph
IF Jonny Bairstow was hoping for a quiet end to a day when he extended his purple batting patch to new superlative levels then he was to be sadly denied.
From the high of a career-best unbeaten 167 and a near sevenhour stay at the Lord’s crease came the low of one of the worst dropped catches you will see from an England wicketkeeper on Bairstow’s day of contrasts.
It left the 26-year-old pondering the twin imposters of triumph and disaster that come with life as a keeper-batsman at the highest level and England with food for thought as they consider their strongest side to take on Pakistan next month.
The second day of this final Investec Test against Sri Lanka became the story of whether the Yorkshireman, who has become such an indispensable member of England’s batting line-up, should also be encumbered by the gloves.
Ask Bairstow about his keeping and he is likely to bristle before pointing out that he has worked extremely hard at the second string to his game, is still learning and is determined to prove himself a genuine all-rounder.
And the presence yesterday of Matt Prior, who rang the fiveminute Lord’s bell before being invited to watch the first session on the England balcony, was a further reminder of the demands on the modern keeper-batsman. Prior struggled with the gloves when he first played Test cricket but turned himself into a worldclass keeper as well as a batsman good enough to inspire England in the manner of Bairstow yesterday in propelling them to 416 all out.
Yet the fact Bairstow is, with the gloves at least, very much a work in progress was emphasised again when he barely laid a glove on a regulation chance after Dimuth Karunaratne had edged Chris Woakes very first ball.
Bairstow demonstrated his character when he limited the damage to 22 runs by taking a good legside catch to see the back of Karunaratne for 50 off Steven Finn but the mistakes are too frequent to pass off as part of a learning curve.
Lord’s is a difficult place to keep wicket — the ball can wobble after it passes the bat — but Bairstow, keeping here for the first time in a first-class match, just seemed to lose one that may have dipped.
The England fielders did not exactly make life any easier with a series of poor throws to their keeper, one of which struck the end of Bairstow’s finger and left him grimacing towards the end of a long day rather than smiling.
How different it had been earlier when Bairstow moved smoothly past his previous best of 150 in Cape Town and added 144 with the impressive Woakes before England’s last three wickets fell for 42 in 45 minutes after lunch.
Bairstow may have run out of partners before he had the chance to push for a double century but England were indebted to him for rescuing them from 84 for four.
What a batsman Bairstow has become. After 34 Test innings he averaged 26.4 but 10 innings later that now stands a fraction under 40 while he is averaging 118 this year. The question now is whether he would be better off concentrating on his batting by moving up to five to allow room for Jos Buttler to return and reclaim the gloves.
England are unlikely to make that switch just yet — Buttler will have no first-class cricket for Lancashire before they face Pakistan on July 14 — but it is a conundrum that won’t go away.
Yet it is one that will have to wait, for now, as England face an almighty struggle if they are to win this series 3-0 after Sri Lanka built on their second innings resistance at Durham to finish the second day on 162 for one.
Finally this inexperienced Sri Lanka have conditions that suit them and finally they are showing the fighting qualities of their predecessors.
Kaushal Silva finished unbeaten on 79 as England struggled to add to their only breakthrough.
Sri Lanka may even put pressure on England if they can bat all day today and into tomorrow but at the very least they are showing them they have some way to go before they can consider themselves among the world’s best teams.
Not least the keeper-batsman who suffered a day of extremes at Lord’s.