Bairstow wants limited-overs return

Cricket365
May 26, 2016

Jonny Bairstow has expressed his desire to take his excellent first-class and Test form back into England's limited-overs setup.

The Yorkshireman, fresh off his century against Sri Lanka in the first Test match of the series, scored 1108 runs for his county side at an an average of 92.33 in their 2015/16 County Championship campaign.

This, coupled with the unfortunate retirement of James Taylor and Ben Stokes' knee injury, means he could very well be given the chance to represent England in all formats of the game again.

The hard work that the 26-year-old has been putting into his often-criticised wicketkeeping skills also appears to be bearing fruit, with the player taking nine catches in a match on two accasions since his return to the Test team.

"I want to play every format I can. Absolutely," Bairstow said. "I want to play all forms of cricket for England, that's an ambition I have. I want to succeed in that.

“If that opportunity does arise, I don't see any reason why Jos and I can't play in the same side,” he continued, referring to England’s current limited overs wicketkeeper.

“I think that would be an exciting prospect with the likes of Stokesy, Jos and myself in that middle-order."

Bairstow also spoke about the role his return to first-class cricket played in the revival of his international career.

"Coming back to Yorkshire for pretty much two years, learning your game, learning about yourself, playing my cricket here in a really great environment and winning trophies has done us and myself a world of good,” he said.

“Form can be taken from you very quickly. It only takes a couple of bits to go wrong and all of a sudden potentially you can be out of form.

“At this moment in time, I'm feeling good, happy with the way I'm striking the ball and with my movement.

“Hopefully, that can continue," he added.