Jonny Bairstow facing a tough route back as selector Ed Smith shows steely side

National selector: Ed Smith has named the first England Test squad of the new era
PA
Will Macpherson24 September 2019

As squad announcements go, Monday’s T20 and Test parties for New Zealand brought much cause for excitement. The seismic summer of 2019 is over, Trevor Bayliss is gone and fresh faces have been called up.

But for all the talk of Dom Sibley, Tom Banton or Matt Parkinson, the standout aspect was that, in different ways, national selector Ed Smith and captain Joe Root seized their moment when naming England’s first Test squad of the new era.

Root made it clear that he wanted to return to No4 after an Ashes series in which he recorded three ducks — two of them golden — when batting at first drop and averaged 32.5. As he has in each of the last two summers, the skipper batted at No3 out of a sense of duty. There was no-one else up to the task and it was what Bayliss wanted, so Root did it.

Those two summers have brought one century and an average of 33. Root is better than that and England need more from him, so the move to No4 is sensible and should signal the end of his shuffling up and down the order. Get Root where he wants to be and let everything else work around him.

It did mean a fundamental shift for the rest. Above Root, England needed three steady batsmen. Below him, a bit more fun could be had. Ben Stokes should bat No5, the wicketkeeper No7, with a batsman between. Suddenly, England are setting up a little more like a Test team. By the Fourth Ashes Test, they had Root at No3, with four explosive members of the World Cup-winning one-day order following him. Things had gone too far.

That move, and the absence of Bayliss — a pro-Jonny Bairstow voice — at the selection table, provided Smith an opportunity to make a change he has been lobbying for since before the Lord’s Ashes Test: to give the gloves to Jos Buttler.

With the perfect position (No6) available for tomorrow’s man Ollie Pope to learn on the job, there was no space for Bairstow in the XI or even the squad. It is Ben Foakes, who was Bayliss’s pick, not Smith’s, on standby as wicketkeeping cover. Bairstow’s keeping days, under Smith at least, are done.

Smith has redefined the role of selector, broadening its reach, visibility and explaining decisions better than his predecessors. He is an original thinker but is capable of rubbing influential people up the wrong way.

Smith will visit Bairstow on Wednesday with his right-hand man, James Taylor, who doubles as one of Bairstow’s best mates. Right now, Bairstow has no complaints — and has expressed a determination to win his place back — but it is easy to understand how he might be confused, given it is a few days since he was handed a Test central contract. That Buttler, an inferior keeper, takes over that job might jar, but there was space for just one and Buttler showed signs of improvement as the Ashes wore on. Since the latter’s return last year, he averages 36 to Bairstow’s 24. That shows Bairstow has issues to address. He has been bowled five times this year, his stumps exposed by the offside carve that has been so successful in white-ball cricket. He has seven ducks in 18 months.

Bairstow has seven ducks in 18 months
AFP/Getty Images

The prevailing argument is that Bairstow has been indulged by England, but in the six Tests since he regained the gloves he spent three matches at No7, two at No6 and two at No5, as indecision over where others — mainly Buttler — bat have seen him shuffled about. Many new roles have been asked of him, from ODI opener to Test No3, but no one could accuse him of being workshy, so time not practising keeping should help.

Do not bet against him being back again, although it is unlikely to be Championship cricket that gets him there. His white-ball commitments, whether with England or at the IPL, will limit his Yorkshire availability next summer. In the short term, if you want him to work on red-ball cricket, why take him to New Zealand for the T20s? He could rest, like Moeen Ali and Jason Roy. As keen as he seems for a return now, there is a chance that limited overs becomes his focus.

Bairstow’s best hope might be that the new coach is a fan. An uncomfortable aspect of all this, of course, is that whoever that coach is will inherit big decisions like this, whether he likes it or not.

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