Apart from Brad Haddin’s Australian summer for the ages in 2013-14, Jonny Bairstow is the only wicketkeeper to make an Ashes hundred in the past decade.
As such, Bairstow stands a genuine chance of making an impact against Australia from No.7, and to do so would be to have a profound influence on the outcome of a much-anticipated series.
But, according to Haddin, ahead of the first Ashes tour in which he will not have been involved as either a player or coach since 2001, the decision to jettison an “elite” wicketkeeper in Ben Foakes says a lot about the reluctance of senior England players to bat at the top of the order this summer.
Jonny Bairstow with fellow England star, and former captain, Joe Root.Credit: AP Photo
“Jonny Bairstow, before he got injured, was in as good a form as anyone in the world with the bat, especially in the new ‘Bazball’ era the way he was playing,” Haddin said.
“Jonny Bairstow demanded he come back into the team with how his performances have been of late. It looks like no one wants to open – Zak Crawley hasn’t done a great deal at the top of the order, there could have been a spot up there for a batsman to have Foakes in the team, but they’ve gone that way.
“I’m a Foakes fan, I think, one, his glovework is elite, and two he gets runs when they need them, he’s a typical keeper that scores runs under pressure. It’s a big decision, especially with the amount of nicks and how influential the keeper can be in English conditions, to not have your best gloveman.”
England coach and former star New Zealand gloveman Brendon McCullum, after which ‘Bazball’ was named, said the call had been made to lengthen England’s batting order as much as possible.
“I’m loathe to get into comparisons, because they’re very different types of players,” McCullum said of Bairstow and Foakes. “But we felt that Jonny was a commodity which was very rare, and he deserves his place in the side. Him batting at six or seven certainly makes it very strong.”
While both Bairstow and England have come a long way since then, Haddin recalled seeing frustration from England’s spearheads Stuart Broad and James Anderson whenever the Yorkshireman had been untidy with the gloves.
“He’s a quality player, and keeping wickets for England is not new to him,” Haddin said. “But I have seen on occasions, in Test matches I played, Broad and Anderson get very frustrated with his work behind the stumps.
“Jonny had to be in there but at the expense of Foakes, who I think is one of the better glovemen in world cricket, and he’s been a part of the turnaround of the England Test team. He missed a couple of Test matches because he was sick [in Pakistan], but before then he’s been one of their main players.”
Regardless, Bairstow’s ability to make centuries from No.7 creates a challenging lower-order opposite number for Alex Carey. After flourishing at home, Carey floundered in India with an approach that veered from sweep-at-all-costs to dour defence to a flailing slog in Ahmedabad, without success. An aggregate of 56 runs at 9.33 was a hard lesson for Carey, after averaging better than 44 in each of his previous four Test series.
Haddin, who has kept in touch with Carey after working closely with him on the 2019 World Cup and Ashes tour, said that a decisive approach to batting was key to his success.
“There were some tough conditions to bat in in India, and he was trying to get a game style that suited him,” Haddin said. “But the one thing he did well back in Australia with the bat is (that) he took the game on and looked like he had a really clear game plan, the way he wanted to play here.
“I think that game plan will be very similar in the UK, where he’s had success in the white-ball form with the bat. Kez (Carey) in India – that’s as well as I’ve seen an Australian keeper keep in those conditions. I thought his glovework was world-class.
Alex Carey made his name in England during the 2019 World Cup.Credit: AP
“I remember touring England with him with the World Cup and Ashes series where he was the non-playing keeper on tour, and he worked a lot on his technique in tour games. He trusts his technique now a lot more when the ball is moving.”
Bairstow has had two Ashes series already as wicketkeeper, and while he performed well in Australia in 2017-18, including the aforementioned hundred in Perth, a somewhat diffident display at home in 2019 was disappointing, particularly after his barnstorming World Cup displays. At the time, Bairstow and others shared a sense of battle fatigue after the intensity of the Cup.
Tim Paine, by no means a match for Bairstow with the bat, was able to make nifty contributions at key times, while also claiming 46 dismissals to Bairstow’s 33 over those 10 Tests.
In the 2021-22 series in Australia, Carey did a similar job with handy batting cameos and sure gloves for the most part as England juggled Jos Buttler and Sam Billings. Bairstow, meanwhile, was recalled for the Sydney Test and conjured England’s only century of a woebegone series.
During a run of four consecutive Ashes wins in England between 1989 and 2001, Australia’s success was underpinned by the performances of Ian Healy and Adam Gilchrist.
Match and series-shaping innings like Healy’s at Old Trafford or Edgbaston in 1993 and Trent Bridge in 1997, or Gilchrist’s at Edgbaston and Lord’s four years later, haven’t truly been sculpted by a wicketkeeper since Haddin.
Bairstow, scarred leg permitting, has been given the chance to add his own, in a commission that puts Carey on notice to do likewise.
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