Memorable year for Bairstow

Bairstow broke into the top 10 of the ICC rankings for the first time and he also went past Mark Boucher and Ian Healy when he claimed the 68th dismissal for the year in Mohali.

Preparing for the fourth Test in Mumbai, Bairstow feels the gap between England and India is not as big as the score suggests. “These teams are equally matched. It’s just they are seizing the big moments. We have to change that,” he was quoted as saying by The Daily Mail.

“I’m not going to lie. Being two down here in India with two to play is tough to take. We dominated in Rajkot and could have won it on the last day then didn’t play the cricket we wanted to in Visakhapatnam even though we were probably only a session away from saving the second Test,” Bairstow said.

“In Mohali, we fought to get even and that morning when India started six down was the massive moment in the third Test and series so far. We had a couple of chances but didn’t take them. Things didn’t go our way but we can’t look back and say ‘what if?’ 

Bairstow does not want to run away from the fact that England have been outplayed at crucial times and he graciously gives India the credit. “They’re a strong side in their own conditions and have a formula that wins them games over there. But we think we can get something out of this series,” he said.

But it has been a tough tour for Bairstow in India though he scored a lot of runs. “We’ve been on tour a long time, if you take into account Bangladesh as well, and it’s been good for us to get away from cricket for a bit. I’m sure there will be some people who think: ‘They’re two down, they should be in the nets’. But we’ve been away since September 29 and in this part of the world it’s hard to get out of the hotel without supervision,” he said. 

But Bairstow does not want to rest on laurels. “I’m under no illusions about the amount of work I still have to do. It’s fantastic to be up there but I won’t be focusing on going past Vaughan in the last two games of this year. If I do, I will have played my part for the team and if that helps lead to wins that’s what matters. Records are a by-product of the hard work I put in when I was out of the side,” he said.

England will most certainly have Eoin Morgan and Alex Hales in their one-day squad to face India.

Morgan looks certain to be back as captain when England begin their countdown to next summer’s Champions Trophy in earnest by naming their squad for three 50-over games and three Twenty20s against India in January.

But the return of Morgan and Hales, who both refused to tour Bangladesh in October because of security concerns, means that two batsmen who featured in the 2-1 series win will have to miss out.

The picture is complicated further by the probable return of Joe Root, who was rested from the one-day leg of the Bangladesh tour and looks set to return against India even though he is expecting his first child in early January.

James Vince is sure to miss out after a run of low scores in international cricket but the situation is more difficult for the selectors over who joins him on the sidelines after a significant series win under stand-in captain Jos Buttler.

Ben Duckett is likely to be the first casualty even though he made two half-centuries in his three one-day matches in Bangladesh before he was undone by Ravichandran Ashwin in the Test series against India.

And Jonny Bairstow, desperate to show that he can play just as important a role in limited-overs cricket as he has done throughout this year in Test cricket, may also miss out on a squad place.

The odds on England wanting a change of one-day captaincy ahead of June’s Champions Trophy in England are long but there is no question Morgan, who returned to form with the bat this summer, will have to score runs against India to ease any doubts about his place at the helm.