After the Lord's stumping, errors with the gloves, and a few low scores, Jonny Bairstow was under-fire - but delivered in typical fashion with a brutal innings for England; "Jonny has read everything, listened to everything and it has wound him up," says Nasser Hussain
Saturday 22 July 2023 10:23, UK
You sensed this was coming from Jonny Bairstow.
Perhaps only Stuart Broad rivals him in the England team when it comes to proving a point. Nearly every time Bairstow feels undermined, doubted or the victim of some kind of injustice, he translates that into swashbuckling on-field performances.
He once lambasted all those who had previously "castigated" him after he scored a Test century in Sri Lanka and he has gone from struggling to command a regular place in England's white-ball XI to being one of the best limited-overs openers they have had.
Last summer, with a County Championship run-machine by the name of Harry Brook pushing for a place in the red-ball middle order, Bairstow crunched 681 runs in six Tests, at an average of 75.66 and a strike rate of 96.59, as he flourished, and largely led the charge, during the embryonic days of Bazball.
And so after falling victim to the Lord's stumping talked about around the world - by players, pundits, Prime Ministers and more - having his errors behind the stumps analysed over and over again, read and heard calls for Ben Foakes to take back the gloves, and seen his runs dry up since starting the Ashes series with a run-a-ball 78, you got the feeling Bairstow was going to produce at some stage.
He produced pyrotechnics in Manchester on Friday with a dazzling 99 not out from 81 balls after being given the perfect platform. England well ahead in the game, Australia flagging and frazzled.
All that pent-up frustration was unleashed as he pummelled Australia's pacemen for a combined 14 boundaries, including four huge sixes, before being stranded one run shy of a 13th Test ton.
Bairstow attempted to play that down at stumps: "Everyone thinks I play better when people go at me, it gets a bit tiresome, to be honest. If I was that rubbish, I wouldn't have played 94 Tests."
But Sky Sports' Nasser Hussain said: "I love cricketers like Jonny Bairstow. He is passionate, cares deeply and wants to show what he can do. He came out like he had a point to prove. He has read everything, listened to everything and it has wound him up.
"Whatever he says, Jonny Bairstow with a point to prove is a very dangerous Jonny Bairstow. He is ticking, has been ticking for weeks, and he wanted that day. If you wind him up enough he will go out there like a bull and deliver."
Back-to-back fours in the over before lunch took Bairstow to 41 from 39 balls at the break and he then went on to clinch a 51-ball half-century in the afternoon by pulling Mitchell Starc for six.
That maximum triggered the sort of onslaught we became accustomed to seeing last summer when Bairstow marmalised New Zealand and India's bowling attacks.
Fours were cut, clipped, punched and driven while sixes were mowed miles, with Bairstow's final maximum, a monster over midwicket, leaving captain Ben Stokes utterly dumbfounded.
Bairstow took just 31 balls to motor from 49 to 99. Sky Sports' Mark Butcher said he batted like a 'beast'. Point proven, eh, Jonny? With the bat, yes, and maybe with the gloves, too.
Bairstow pulled off a stunning one-handed catch to dismiss Mitchell Marsh in Australia's first innings - a high that he probably took into his batting, such is the emotion with which he plays - and so far has enjoyed a much cleaner outing all round as wicketkeeper than in the first three Tests at Edgbaston, Lord's and Headingley. Foakes' name has not been mentioned quite as much at Emirates Old Trafford.
There is no denying Foakes is the silkier gloveman of the two but the gap is perhaps not as vast as it has seemed in this series with Bairstow readjusting to the position after that horrific leg break last September.
Bairstow told Sky Sports: "I have not kept wicket for three years. I have got nine pins, a plate and a wire that goes through my ankle. I have had nine months out.
"When you speak to the surgeon and he says I am surprised that you are walking and running, let alone playing professional sport, I am delighted to be where I am at from a physical point of view.
"It has taken a hell of a lot of graft and to take the field again with a group of boys I care a heck of a lot about is a special place for me to be. I am very proud when I walk out in an England shirt."
There is surely no denying Bairstow is the more exciting all-round package than Foakes. "I'm not, as you'd say, Bazball," Foakes told reporters earlier this year. Bairstow, on the other hand, is Mr Bazball.
No England batter's strike-rate has risen as high as his since Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum took charge last spring. Bairstow has been shown love and repaid England with knocks of jaw-dropping speed and quality.
"What this England side do very well is stick with people. In the '80s and '90s if you had two or three bad games you were out," added Hussain.
The speed of Bairstow's latest knock could prove vital. With rain set to hit Manchester this weekend - Saturday could be a washout and Sunday is likely to be interrupted, too - England need as much time as possible to bowl Australia out.
With Bairstow in such blistering form on Friday afternoon, his team were afforded a little over a session at the Baggy Greens, during which they removed David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith and Travis Head. Mark Wood's speed accounting for Khawaja, Smith and Head.
England are now six wickets away from remaining in the Ashes after a day on which Bairstow showed why he remains a key player for his team. Point proven.
Watch day four of the fourth Ashes Test at Emirates Old Trafford live on Sky Sports Cricket on Saturday. Build-up starts at 10.15am with the first ball at 11am, weather-permitting. Stream The Ashes and more with NOW for £21 a month.
