BAIRSTOW IN TV PROMISE
England man aiming to put on show for viewers rather than ‘live’ crowd
LIKE all great entertainers, Jonny Bairstow is a man who feeds off a crowd, a showman who relishes being centre stage.
There will be no crowds at cricket for the foreseeable future, but the Yorkshireman is confident that he can adapt to fixtures behind closed doors.
“It’s going to be something that you have to get used to,” said Bairstow, who hopes to feature in the three-match Test series against the West Indies set to start in Southampton on July 8.
“But there are certain places that we’ve played around the world in Test cricket that haven’t necessarily had a massive crowd, so I don’t think it will be too dissimilar to some of those.
“We’re very fortunate playing (normal) home summers that we get some amazing crowds and we have amazing support.
“It’s going to be a little bit different but, at the same time, everyone’s understanding of the situation and the circumstances that we face.”
Bairstow is heading to Durham today to face England team-mates Ben Stokes and Mark Wood for his first practice against actual bowling since he returned to training at Headingley a fortnight ago, where he has been facing throwdowns from Yorkshire first-team coach Andrew Gale and batting against the bowling machine.
The 30-year-old is simply grateful to be back in action and for the return of sport per se – behind closed doors or otherwise.
“If you rewind six-to-eight weeks ago, and people said that we were going to get some cricket at the back end of the summer, then if that was to be behind closed doors and people were able to watch sport on telly, I think people would have taken it,” he said.
“I’ve watched golf over the last four days and I’ve been completely captivated just because there’s been some live sport back on telly; similarly with the rugby that’s been back on in the southern hemisphere.
“It’s just great to see live sport back on the TV, and internal motivators will get you through (as players).
“The will and the want to run in when it’s windy and when it’s maybe a bit chilly and not so nice, for example – it’s the internal motivators that you’ll really see come through within games behind closed doors.”
Plenty will be hoping to see Bairstow back on their television screens against the West Indies after he lost his Test place during the winter.
Gale recently labelled him the “the best keeper-batter in world cricket” – a view many agree with.
“I want to play, I’ve always said that,” said Bairstow. “Red-ball cricket is something that’s been a massive part of my career, and I’m very much looking forward to being available for selection.
“There’s always been challenges that have been asked, whether that be keeping wicket or batting in certain positions in different circumstances. I’d like to hope that I’ve risen to those challenges.”
As well as working with Gale at Headingley, Bairstow has been honing his wicketkeeping skills with England fielding coach Carl Hopkinson, the former Sussex player.
Bairstow’s glovework has come on immeasurably over the years to the extent that his excellence is taken as read.
“To be honest, over a period of time, I’ve been really happy with my keeping,” he said.
“That’s the bit at the start of my career that people questioned but they’ve kind of stopped speaking about that over the last couple of years.
“My stats on my keeping were very good and I didn’t feel I’d done anything wrong with my keeping, and I was getting complimented pretty highly from many people on that.”
It remains to be seen whether multi-format players such as Bairstow can flit between England’s red and white-ball squads due to the restrictions around the coronavirus.
England are due to face Ireland, Pakistan and Australia later in the summer, with the West Indies Tests the first examination of the rigorous biosecure protocols that have been put in place by the England and Wales Cricket Board.
“First and foremost, we need to get this bubble right with the Test squad because that’s going to be the first test of the whole process, and once those procedures have been implemented then things will then move on and we can start talking about the crossover from red-ball to white-ball,” added Bairstow.
“Can people come in and out of the bubble? Look, we’re seeing
the government guidelines, and they’re changing every single week on what you can and can’t do.
“We’ve still got three weeks until the first Test match starts, and then there’s a period of time after that until the one-dayers start, so at this moment in time I think it’s too far ahead to be wondering if we can chop and change and everything like that because we don’t know what the situation will be.”
Bairstow is expecting a stern challenge from the West Indies.
“You look at their squad and they’ve got experience and youth,” he said. “I think they’ve got a very talented bowling attack and variation, too.”