Everything that Jonny Bairstow touches turns to gold these days. The right-hander, who likes to play aggressively and is like a kid in a candy store with the new England’s approach of Bazball, is relishing his role in the team.
Bairstow had scored two centuries against New Zealand and carried his same form against India. The batter from Yorkshire played a crucial knock of 106 runs in the first innings to help England post 284 runs and keep the hosts in the game after India had scored 416.
Subsequently, Bairstow once again scored a fine unbeaten knock of 114 runs in the second innings when the hosts were chasing 378 runs. Bairstow added 269 runs with Joe Root, which is the highest alliance in the fourth innings of the Test match.
In fact, Bairstow had scored six centuries in 79 Test matches whereas he has scored six hundreds in the last eight Test matches, as he is in the form of his life.
Bairstow took his chances in the first innings whereas he rotated the strike more in the second essay to score his runs. However, Indian bowlers could not crack the code to dismiss Bairstow before he did the whole damage. The chase of 378 was the highest for England in Test cricket and eighth-highest overall.
Jonny Bairstow was awarded the Player of the Match for scoring twin centuries.
He said in the post-match presentation, “It is great fun at the moment. The last month has been fantastic for the lads and the smiles on their faces when everyone does well is a massive part of it. I am stripping it back to the basics. The last few years have been tough on me but the last few months have been fantastic. Fair play to everyone who went through that. To the crowd as well: Day five was over in 90 minutes. I just have an enjoyment factor now. I am not afraid of failing and just want to put the pressure on the opposition. We are going to lose games with the approach we have, but it is a positive fun brand of cricket to play.”
He added, “The chase was all under control (laughs). They have some world class bowlers and you just have to soak the pressure. They try to intimidate, they have some fantastic players and it was about trying to shift the pressure on them. There are going to be phases when they are going to play really well. There was a period when it started reversing as well. And today morning was a different morning. Root and me are just two lads from Yorkshire. We have grown up playing together and spent a lot of time together from the Yorkshire academy days to the Test team now. Special to play with him.”
Bairstow will look to carry the same form in the white-ball series against India.
