It is time for Jonny Bairstow to admit to both himself and his England teammates that he is more valuable to England as a batsman than as a keeper.
Statistics show that in Test cricket he struggles to do both together. As far as keeping is concerned, England have arguably the best gloveman in the world waiting in the wings in Ben Foakes, who also happens to have a Test batting average of 40 – five more runs an innings than Bairstow (although admittedly Foakes’s is a relatively small sample size).
In one-day cricket, Jos Buttler has long been England’s number one keeper, and it has allowed Bairstow to flourish at the top of the order. The early momentum his batting provides in ODIs is one of the main reasons England are world champions.
It is surely now time for Bairstow to realise that his true value to England in Test cricket is as a counter-punching number five or six batsman – someone who has the talent to average 40 in Test cricket. At his best, he is arguably England’s second-best batsman after Joe Root, and is a crackerjack fielder to boot.
He’d be a welcome addition to England’s shaky slip cordon, and he’s the best ‘sweeper’ fielder on the boundary in world cricket.
One thing about Bairstow though is that he is stubborn – he has a burning desire to prove doubters wrong, and his best performances often come after a journalist or ex-player has written him off. Tell him he shouldn’t be keeping in Tests for England, and you’ll likely be met with a curt reply.
However, there now seems no escaping the fact that his technique with both bat and gloves has deteriorated in Test cricket. He averages a little over 20 with the bat in 2019, which simply isn’t good enough for a player of his ability. He has also dropped some fairly straightforward chances behind the stumps so far in this Ashes series.
It could be partly down to a World Cup hangover – the high of winning the World Cup, especially winning it in the circumstances of that final, must take a while to come down from. But it could also be due to him having to work on the dual skills of batting and keeping, rather than being able to put all his time and energy into working on his batting.
Either way, it’s not working for him.
The most logical move would be to bring Foakes in at seven in place of Buttler – another player who has found it hard to convert his one-day prowess into Test match consistency, with Bairstow playing at six as a specialist batsman.
Jonny might not like this, but sometimes even a burning desire to prove critics wrong has to be put aside in favour of what is best for the team, and in time Bairstow will accept this and flourish.
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