Just under an hour into England’s much-heralded red-ball reset, and already things were going badly.
Joe Root’s complicated relationship with the No. 3 spot continued with the England captain in at 12-1, and out again soon after. However, given Zak Crawley was out five runs later in the interim, perhaps that’s not the issue, and at 27-3, England were in trouble. Dan Lawrence flashed briefly but fell for 20, and at 48-4, the jokes were writing themselves. Different players (though not that different), but same old England. Who’d have thought dropping Anderson and Broad wouldn’t solve the batting woes? And so on.
A disaster looked imminent. An early finish, a 12th defeat in 15, more recriminations, Root’s job on the line again, the bat signal sent up for Broad and Anderson to fix those batting woes. Instead, three consecutive fifty-plus partnerships, the second stretching to just under 100 and the third unbeaten at stumps, meant that England ended the day in the ascendancy. And Jonny Bairstow was central to all of it.
There is something oddly soothing about Ben Stokes and Bairstow batting together – there are few other situations in which the introduction of either would soothe anything. Each seems to have a calming effect on their partner, as if assured enough of the other’s desire for proactivity that they know they can take their time. The passage before lunch only brought five runs for each, but it was key, occupying eight, precious overs, and leaving the situation just about salvageable.
Three balls after the break, Bairstow crunched a pull shot, and an over later Stokes thumped off the back foot, and they were away. They now average 46.80 as a pair together, with the second most runs of any England partnership in the last 10 years. This time it was Bairstow that kicked on, bringing up tons in consecutive Tests for the first time.
At the end of 2021, this revival was hugely unexpected, and his renaissance doesn’t mean it was wrong to question the number of chances he was given, or, more specifically, what England expected to have changed between each of those chances. Indeed, he looked at that point among the most likely to be a victim of England’s already touted reset. A top score of 57 in 36 innings stretching back to the start of 2019 made England’s persistence look like little more than blind faith, and it was even more optimistic to hope that the direst of tours would resurrect their erstwhile fulcrum.
Sometimes, however, players do just get better in the nets. They work out their issues, search their souls, and figure it out. Sometimes blind faith pays off. And few are more deserving of it than Bairstow, whose 2016 – 1,470 runs, three hundreds – ranked as one of England’s greatest before Root broke all records last year, and who has continued to show in ODIs that the clean ball-striking and the game-sense has remained in place.
This latest revival looks like the real thing. This wasn’t quite the enthralling counter-punch at Sydney, and, in a way, it was all the more pleasing for it. Bairstow has always looked a player in need of someone to prove wrong, and often he has had one. Here, however, he always felt like England’s second most likely, behind Root, to make a score. There was no flirtation with handing him the gloves, or with pushing him up the order in the lead-up. Instead he had the plum position at No.6, the comfort of a handy tail to bat with, and an innings that needed rescuing. All he had to do was give a skilful, varied bowling attack its due, and accumulate the runs on offer. The reaction wasn’t rage, or relief. Instead, pure happiness spread across Bairstow’s face, a man finally at peace with himself, and now perhaps ready to make up for all that lost time.
This wasn’t a flawless innings – an ugly top-edge would have been pilloried had it spiralled directly up instead of over the keeper, and there was a turned-down umpire’s call lbw shout too – but Bairstow looks as certain against straight, quick bowling, whether short or full, as he ever has done. It’s not for everyone, but a move across his stumps has allowed him to hit towards the leg-side, rather than fall over trying to do so. His batting tempo has rarely been an issue, but that 29-ball five-run stretch pre-lunch emphasised the new-found surety of his defence, and there were other passages to mark this out as a lesson in innings construction.
Twelve runs off 15 balls before Stokes got out transitioned to four off 34 in another becalmed, pre-interval stock-taking. Two boundaries soon after got him going again, with 21 off 19 helping him cruise past 50. Another quiet stretch was ended emphatically by seven boundaries in 10 balls to take him into the 90s. A few nerves negotiated, and then that leap, that roar, that smile. He will resume tomorrow with 109 to his name, Woakes and the rest of an unusually thick tail alongside him, and the potential to put together something epic.
A few more innings like this, and the question of a promotion will rise again – Foakes’ assured 42 has settled some questions over his batting ability and therefore the wicketkeeping spot – but they should be resisted. It’s true that in a functioning Test team, the No.6 slot goes to your most promising young batter, to bed in and get settled, and not to a 32-year-old who averages less than 35. But it’s also true that England’s is not a functioning Test team. Whatever is working must be clung to at all costs, and all that needs fixing can only be patched up on the fly.
Bairstow is the man for right now. And who knows, perhaps he could be for tomorrow, and the days and years to come too.
