Jonny Bairstow to rack up 100 Tests for England but how many more will he play? | Cricket News

Jonny Bairstow is on the verge of another Test century – perhaps his most unexpected of the lot.

Bairstow’s batting prowess has taken him to 12 tons for England so far and now he is primed for a century of a different kind, with the final Test in India from Thursday to be the 100th of his career.

There would have been times where Bairstow wondered when his next Test was coming, let alone such a milestone one. Since his debut at Lord’s in May 2012, against West Indies, he has missed 51 of England’s matches due to a combination of injury and non-selection.

Even when he has been in the side, his role has changed so frequently. Perhaps only Moeen Ali, who batted everywhere from one to nine during his Test career, has been messed around as much.

In the team, out the team. Dropped, restored. Wicketkeeper-batter, specialist batter. Up at No 3, down at No 7, everywhere in between. Bairstow’s 100th game, as team-mate Joe Root said on the latest Sky Sports Cricket Podcast, is testament to his resilience and adaptability as well as his ability.

He has ability in droves, showing that during two golden periods in Test cricket. First as a wicketkeeper-batter in 2016 and then as Bazball’s beacon during its birth in the summer of 2022.

Eight years ago, Bairstow racked up the most runs by a wicketkeeper in a calendar year (1,470), while two years ago he smoked four tons in five innings as a specialist batter, including a swashbuckling 77-ball effort against New Zealand at Trent Bridge, to help England begin the Ben Stokes-Brendon McCullum era in style.

Bairstow playing for his place?

Bairstow seemed poised to play major roles at the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia and Test series in Pakistan later that year, only to suffer a devastating leg break slipping on a golf course.

His career paused, he even feared not walking again, and since his return he has been unable to hit previous heights.

The horrific injury surely impacted his wicketkeeping in The Ashes last summer and he is averaging just 21.25 in the India series with a top score of 38 in eight innings.

There have been glimpses of class – three Ashes fifties, including a riotous 99 not out from 81 balls in Manchester – but his main moments since coming back have been being involved in that stumping at Lord’s – you know, the one Alex Carey will always be remembered for – and carrying a Just Stop Oil protester off the field.

Closing in on 35 years of age and with the runs having dried up, there must be a chance Bairstow’s 100th Test is his last.

Harry Brook, who has missed the India series for personal reasons, will regain his place at some stage and Bairstow’s spot looks most vulnerable, with Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley nailed on as openers and Stokes, Root and Ollie Pope entrenched in the middle order.

The notion that Bairstow will replace Ben Foakes as wicketkeeper when the home Tests against Sri Lanka and West Indies roll around this summer is not so clear cut now. Foakes has been nigh on impeccable with the gloves in India but also edged Bairstow on runs scored, albeit at an inferior strike-rate.

Looking further into the future, Somerset’s James Rew, a cricketing baby at the age of 20, could be England’s long-term wicketkeeper-batter. He averaged 57 in County Championship Division One in 2023 with five hundreds, including a top-score of 221 against Hampshire.

‘Emotional’ Bairstow hits hundred mark

One thing we have learnt over the years, though, is never to write Bairstow off. Every time he senses even a scintilla of questioning or doubt – and there is a bit of that now after his lean returns in India – he seems to be at his most dangerous, even if he disputes that.

A century in Sri Lanka at No 3 after feeling he had been “castigated” for being injured, that aforementioned Ashes 99 after wicketkeeping blemishes been discussed by the media. Countless other examples.

Even early in his Yorkshire career when Sir Geoffrey Boycott called him out for not yet hitting a hundred and he promptly changed that fact. An emotional, fired-up Bairstow is often the best Bairstow.

He admits his 100th Test in Dharamsala will be an “emotional” occasion with his family in attendance, telling reporters to “get the tissues ready” – a very different outlook to India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin who, on the cusp of achieving the same feat in the same game, said it was “just a number”.

Bairstow will hope it is not 100 and out for him, but, if it is, he can reflect on a century that had it all, one he reached through coruscating fours and monstrous sixes but also by fighting his way through the tough times, both professional and personally.

He lost father David, a former England and Yorkshire wicketkeeper himself, to suicide in 1998 – Jonny was eight at the time – while his mother Janet has battled breast cancer. Things like that put a lack of runs or a few errors behind the stumps into perspective.

Janet will be in attendance for Jonny’s 100th Test – and you would not put it past her son to put on a show. It would be so Jonny Bairstow to silence the chit-chat and fire with the bat.

Follow text commentary from day one of the fifth Test between India and England live on skysports.com and the Sky Sports App from 3.30am on Thursday (4am first ball).

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