Ben Stokes used words like “wow” and “phenomenal” to describe the incredible form that Jonny Bairstow has been in since the start of the year as he peaked with his game throughout England’s 3-0 Test series whitewash over the Kiwis at home.
Bairstow, who smashed an unbeaten 71 off 44 deliveries to take England home in their series-clinching run-chase at Leeds on June 27, finished the three-match rubber with 394 runs in six innings, made with an astonishing strike-rate of 120.12.
The explosive right-hander smashed 77 and 95-ball hundreds in the series against a quality New Zealand attack, which he made seam toothless on what were relatively flatter surfaces than seen at the start of an English summer previously.
Bairstow helped England nail run-chases of nearly 300 runs on successive occasions at Trent Bridge and Headingley and did it in a fashion that perhaps signalled the team’s newfound attitude and approach under skipper Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum.
As England clinched the series, Stokes said his plan with Bairstow at No.5 was always to liberate him as a naturally attacking striker of the cricket ball and take the game back to the opposition in the manner he does best.
“Just take him to the role in the white-ball team: he’s very clear, very specific, he knows exactly what he’s doing every time he steps out there to play,”
the Test skipper was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.
“And I feel what we’ve managed to do – not just with Jonny – is just instill [the idea that] ‘this is what we want this team to be about’. Not specifically individuals, but what it’s done is allow people to feel comfortable in the role that they are in at the moment,”
he added.
Stokes revealed an anecdote from inside the England dressing room, stating how Bairstow, despite his magnificent hundred in the final innings at Nottingham, was seeking some validation and reinforcement from McCullum, who then expectedly told him to stick to his guns.
“I’d never heard a bloke get 130 off 90 balls [136 off 92] the week before and then ask his head coach, ‘how shall I go out and play?’ Baz [Brendon McCullum] then said, ‘go and get your Sudoku book and come and sit next to me and shut up’, basically. Whatever you did last week worked, go and do it again,”
“With Jonny, he knows what he’s in the team to do now and he knows how he wants to play and that’s something that he’s managed to do with the white-ball group. He’s literally playing like he’s got the colours on. He’s just ‘wow’. That’s how I can explain the way he’s playing at the moment. It’s just phenomenal,”
Stokes stated.
The skipper said his hundred in the first-innings at Leeds, with England reeling at 55 for 6 trailing New Zealand’s 329 all out, was an even better effort than his remarkable assault to seal the Test on the final afternoon in Nottingham. When England looked like conceding a decisive advantage to the tourists towards a potential face-saving victory, Bairstow grabbed the game by the scruff of its neck and tilted things back in his team’s favour with a jaw-dropping 162 off 157 balls.
Stokes said Bairstow’s attacking mould and approach towards a difficult situation was the most “pleasing” aspect of his batting, and it symbolises England’s way of playing from here on: attack, attack, attack and do it some more.
