Why dropping Foakes for Bairstow is the right call
It is the right decision to drop Ben Foakes for Jonny Bairstow. It was inevitable but still divides opinion, although that is really nothing to do with Bairstow.
Anyone who argues against his return either has memory problems or slept through the 2022 summer, when for a period he was British sport’s hottest star; he put the Bs in “Bazball”.
No, the anger is about Zak Crawley and the loyalty shown to him regardless of his underperformance, while Foakes pays the price despite never letting England down.
Foakes averages a respectable 38 under Ben Stokes and Brendon Mccullum, scored a crucial hundred to help turn the series against South Africa last summer and is arguably the best gloveman in the game right now. He will be back for the tour of India this winter, where keeping skills standing up to the stumps will be more important than over the next few weeks.
But England have made their decision and Bairstow will keep this summer. Mccullum and Stokes are decisive – no faffing around by naming both Foakes and Bairstow in the squad, and that is good leadership.
The presence of Dan Lawrence as the spare batsman is a sign that Bairstow will keep the gloves even if one of the top five breaks a finger. In that case Lawrence, whom Stokes likes as a player and character, will be back.
It is wise because Bairstow is a character who needs clarity about his role. Mccullum and Stokes are masters at understanding their players and the captain has been around Bairstow long enough to know how to keep him focused on the job rather than distracted by fears over his place or role.
Cobbling an opener out of Bairstow, or Stokes for that matter, was talked about but neither has performed the role in first-class cricket, let alone Tests, and it would
go against the philosophy of this team to fudge a decision. England have gone too far down the road with Crawley to pull over now. It also provides England with an explosive lower middle order: Harry Brook, Stokes and Bairstow.
Pace is what Crawley thrives on and he showed a flash of that in Sydney last year when he took on Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc. But few batsmen have enjoyed as many chances as him and he feared it was over when he ended a lean New Zealand series lamely in Wellington. Mccullum’s support for him after the game was a clear sign he would be given another chance.
Bairstow can hurt Australia.
Foakes would have, at best, frustrated them for a while, but teams do not fear him. They fear Bairstow and what he is capable of.
“Impacting a game rather than statistics is what we look at,” Rob Key said, defending the Crawley decision, and that is what has cost Foakes. He was unsettled by Neil Wagner’s bouncers in Wellington when he had a chance to take England home in the tight second Test but came up short. It was a missed opportunity. Crawley can “impact the game” with a new-ball salvo.
Mccullum cleverly made it public that Bairstow would be recalled once he was fit again and he has not shown any sign of lingering distress from his broken leg while playing, and keeping, for Yorkshire recently. Bairstow has never enjoyed such faith from the England management in his long career and it could be a masterstroke if he brings out the strutting peacock of last summer.
Crawley is on notice. He will be out of the side if England start badly and he does not score runs, but the make-up of this squad shows Foakes is facing a long wait.
England squad BA Stokes (Durham, capt), JM Anderson (Lancashire), JM Bairstow (Yorkshire, wkt), SCJ Broad (Nottinghamshire), HC Brook (Yorkshire), Z Crawley (Kent), BM Duckett (Nottinghamshire), DW Lawrence (Essex), MJ Leach (Somerset), OJD Pope (Surrey), MJ Potts (Durham), OE Robinson (Sussex), JE Root (Yorkshire), CR Woakes (Warwickshire), MA Wood (Durham).