Jonny Bairstow believes some of the criticism surrounding his wicketkeeping has been “out of order” after he regained the gloves just nine months after a horrific freak leg break.
The England gloveman said at one point that he feared he would never walk again after the injury brought an abrupt end to the form that saw him heralded as the poster boy for Bazball and awarded the first Wisden Trophy for an outstanding Test performance of the year.
Ben Foakes was the one who had to make way for Bairstow to return to the England team, and he has made his mistakes during the Ashes that has led to calls for his replacement to step up with the gloves.
The conversations grew louder after number three Ollie Pope was ruled out of the remainder of the series with a dislocated shoulder, but Bairstow took a shot at those who have called for the change within the media.
“You’ve got to have a bit of perspective on it,” Bairstow said to the BBC after the game. “I’ve not played in months and I’ve not kept properly in three years.
“There’s obviously been a lot of talk and things like that, some of which I think has been a bit out of order to be honest but that’s part and parcel of people having an opinion.
“There are times when if people had a conversation with you individually and found out a bit more about the injury or the ankle and how everything’s going, they might have a slightly different view or perspective on it.”
On day three at Old Trafford, Bairstow looked every part with the bat that he had last summer. He hit some glorious sixes, including a flat one off Pat Cummins through square leg even with Australia putting nine men on the boundary.
When James Anderson came out he was on 49, but retained the strike when he could including taking on the arm of Alex Carey to run byes on a couple of occasions, to the delight of the crowd after his controversial run out at Lord’s.
Bairstow’s 99 not out helped put England in a dominant position to win the test at the end of day three at Old Trafford— (PA)
“Keeping after three years’ not keeping, it’s one of those things that takes a bit of time, irrelevant of the ankle,” he said.
Bairstow added: “There’s obviously been some chitter-chatter and opinions that have been rather interesting at times, especially when there’s not been many conversations around how my ankle is or anything like that.
“It’s been rather interesting. I’m delighted to be out there, I’m incredibly proud and a proud man to be taking the field after, well, I’m still only 10 months post-operation now.
“To have the injury that I had and back playing international sport within nine months is something I’m incredibly proud of because it wasn’t necessarily the easiest thing to come back from and there’s been a lot of testing times with it.
“Naturally when you have an injury of that significance, there’s a chance you don’t play sport again.”
