Jonny Bairstow will become the 17th England player to feature in 100 Test matches if he plays in the final two games of the series in India. It’s a significant achievement in a career that’s undergone several different eras.

The beginnings – in and out of the side

Bairstow came into Test cricket during a significant summer for a side who, 12 months before, had become the top-ranked team in the world. After Eoin Morgan was dropped prior to the 2011/12 winter and Ravi Bopara picked up a side strain that ruled him out of contention, Bairstow was called upon.

It was a rough initiation. Dropped after three Tests worth of low scores against the West Indies and struggles against Kemar Roach, he was given an opportunity after Kevin Pietersen was dropped for the final South Africa Test. The 95 runs he scored at Lord’s with Morne Morkel bouncers whistling around his ears were the first indication of the key theme that’s spanned Bairstow’s career. When backed into a corner, he rarely fails to respond.

Another half-century in the following innings won him a place on the landmark 2012 tour of India. Despite only playing one Test in that series – standing in for Ian Bell on paternity leave – he’s one of three among England’s lot on the current tour who have Test series winner’s medals in India. His next Test came in similar circumstances, filling in for Pietersen once again on the final match of England’s tour to New Zealand.

Despite his twin single-digit scores in that game, he was given both Tests when New Zealand toured England the following summer. A half-century in Leeds did enough for him to retain his spot for the 2013 summer Ashes, along with Joe Root’s move out of the middle order. But by the time the series ended, and with one 50 plus score to show, time in his first stint was running out. Still included in the following winter’s trip down under, he was no longer part of the first-choice XI, and only found himself in the side once the trajectory of the series was clear. While there was no significant improvement in his scores, the Melbourne Test marked a significant point, taking the big gloves for the first time in a Test. However, scores of 10, 21, 18 and 0 in that series were enough for his first significant spell out of the squad.

2015 Ashes & breakthrough in South Africa

By mid-summer 2015, Bairstow had over 900 runs in the County Championship and was averaging over 100. With Gary Ballance looking less and less likely to feature, and Bairstow also scoring runs in the international white-ball format, justification for not picking him would have worn thin. Into the series for the pivotal Nottingham Test, a 74 in a memorable partnership with Root gave him another go at The Oval, where he scored 13 and 26.

Nevertheless he was included for all three Tests in the UAE against Pakistan. While the lack of a definitive three-figure score weighed heavier by the innings, Jos Buttler being dropped in the final Test of that series was another important moment. For the first time since the 2013/14 Ashes, Bairstow was given the gloves. Although murmurings around his skills behind the stumps continued during the following years, the unforgettable innings at Centurion rightly overtook them.

While Stokes’ feat that day are in the record books, it was Bairstow’s coming of age. An outburst of all the emotion from the well-documented struggles in his life to that point surmised in an intense stare up to the sky, what would become trademarked red-faced bellows and a raise of the bat, to celebrate 150 off 191 balls. The start of his first imperial era.

England’s first-choice keeper

That Cape Town innings started off a three-year run as Bairstow being one of the first names on the team sheet. From the start of 2016 to the end of 2017, he scored four centuries and averaged 48.22 – only Root and Alastair Cook scored more runs in Tests for England in that period. During that time, Bairstow was also the first-choice keeper. Even when Buttler came back into the fold for the 2018 summer, Bairstow retained the gloves over him for the majority of that summer, until his batting form began to wane.

It’s worth noting as well that during the peak of this period, Bairstow’s role in the side was fairly fixed. He was batting largely at No.6 or 7 and keeping wicket, but a run at No.5 in late 2016 and early 2017 coincided with a relative drop in runs. For the fourth Test of the 2018 India series, he was forced to hand over the gloves when he fractured his finger at the Ageas Bowl. That incident was in the middle of three ducks in four innings. By the time England got to Sri Lanka that winter, Ben Foakes had also entered the fray.

Injuries, Covid and second coming

The most bitty period of Bairstow’s career started with one of his most memorable knocks. After missing the first two Tests in Sri Lanka after bringing to an end England’s beloved football warm-ups by sustaining an ankle injury, he was moved up to No.3 to get him back into a side that also contained Buttler and Foakes. Still adamant he didn’t want to give up the gloves long-term, he celebrated a sixth Test hundred bellowing up at the balcony puce-faced, almost steaming at the ears. However, that innings was his last Test century for over two years.

One half-century in the West Indies followed by a pair against Ireland at Lord’s preceded the 2019 summer. Back down the order and gloves returned, despite Buttler’s presence, Bairstow retained his place for the entirety of the 2019 Ashes despite reaching 50 only once. This was the era when England had Jason Roy opening the batting, and the cupboard beyond was strikingly bare. In 2019, Bairstow averaged 18.55 with just as many ducks as fifties. He lost both the gloves to Buttler, and his place to Ollie Pope on the following tour to New Zealand. A brief return to replace an unwell Pope in South Africa returned two single-figure scores. He was omitted from the squad selected for the ill-fated trip to Sri Lanka.

Despite not playing a Test in 2020 for the first time in a calendar year since 2012, and losing his central contract at the end of the year, Covid and Buttler’s final Test decline meant the door still felt open to Bairstow’s return. He was named in the 55-man training group during the early stages of the pandemic and, when England once again needed a No.3 in Sri Lanka, he was called upon again. His return wasn’t as emphatic as it was two years before in Sri Lanka, and it was followed by a disappointing India series where he registered three ducks in his first four innings.

Rested after the IPL for two Test matches against New Zealand in 2021, he came back for the series against India that Foakes missed through injury and Pope didn’t feature until the final Test. One half-century in that series later, he was included as the spare batter on that winter’s tour of Australia, when England had few others of note to call upon.

Golden summer to date

Back into the XI for the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, he kicked off his ascension to 2022 with a century in Sydney. Another followed on the final series of the Root era in Sydney, before the summer to trump all summers. The bulldozing entrance of the Bazball era had Bairstow at its helm. He scored 394 runs off 328 balls across the three Tests against New Zealand – no one else has ever scored more runs in a series at a faster rate. Even more remarkable, halfway through the series he’d only scored 25 of those runs.

The twin hundreds against India came next, sealing his record as the only player batting at No.5 or lower to score six Test centuries in a calendar year. Seeing it better than arguably anyone ever has, it was a pity he didn’t see a stray golf ball in the aftermath of another unfathomably box-office win against South Africa. On the sidelines again, Harry Brook took over exactly where Bairstow left off, but the still-colourful memories of Bairstow that summer were enough to win him back the gloves over Foakes for the 2023 summer. His decent returns against Australia (78 at Edgbaston, 99 not out at Old Trafford and 78 at The Oval) kept those feelings alive.

Against India, yet to pass 40 in the series three Tests in, the colour is starting to fade. But there should be at least two more games before it drains completely – if it ever does. If there’s one learning from Bairstow’s career, just when you think it’s done, it roars back into life.

Subscribe to the Wisden Cricket YouTube channel for post-match analysis, player interviews, and much more.