‘I was content, I was happy’ – Bairstow relishing his second coming

Batter seemed to have been ousted from the England Test team but is now back as one of its senior-most members

Bairstow continued to look at the bright side, hoping for “someone to come in and step up”, while explaining that England were well-prepared for these speed bumps.

“I don’t think it’s too much of a de-stabiliser to be honest,” he said. “With the nature of professional sport, there are going to be injuries at times, there is going to be illness, it can happen overnight and you’ve got to be adaptable within the group. That’s what we have been. Whether it’s in South Africa [in 2019-20], rewinding to when everyone was unfortunately poorly, or other occasions.”

To be fair, Bairstow has overcome so many logistical challenges already this year that a bit of team uncertainty on the eve of a Test match is nothing much to faze him. “I’ve been busy,” he conceded, after a 2021 itinerary that began with two Tests in Sri Lanka, continued with a bout of quarantine in Ahmedabad ahead of his two Tests in India, a packed one-day campaign, and a successful IPL, and culminated in his arrival at Loughborough at 1.30am, ahead of the Trent Bridge Test, fresh from the second of his two match-winning performances for Welsh Fire in the Hundred.

“You’re going from playing a Hundred game the night before, and trying to hit as many balls as possible into the River Taff, which was great fun, to then facing Broady and Ollie Robinson with a Dukes ball,” Bairstow said of his build-up to that Test recall. “So there’s definitely many differences within that process.

“But I was content, I was happy,” he added, after scores of 29 and 30, which – Root aside – represented England’s most consistent run-scoring in the Test. “It was obviously slightly different to the week before, but to spend a decent amount of time at the crease was pleasing. I didn’t go on to get a big score but if I keep doing what I was doing in those two innings, keep with that method and mindset, then hopefully there is going to be a fairly big one to come fairly soon.”

All of which means that England’s middle order could have an improbably familiar look to it, given that Root, Bairstow, Jos Buttler and Moeen are all more familiar with one another in the triumphant 50-over format than they have been of late in Test cricket. It’s a prospect that Bairstow welcomes, given how important the team’s mindset has become in this extraordinary summer, when opportunities for conventional match practice are so vanishingly scarce.

“It’s a fair point,” he said. “Having relationships and experience within that middle period there is something that we can latch on. It is a very fun experience, being out there together in the middle, and being able to recall those experiences and relish those partnerships that you’re able to have. Hopefully we’ll be able to have a chuckle while we reflect on what’s been a positive, successful partnership between individuals, but also as a collective.”

Just as Bairstow’s return to the Test team coincided with a run of success in the Hundred, so Moeen is back with his form and confidence brimming over, after a brace of blazing performances for Birmingham Phoenix in the past week. And speaking from personal experience, Bairstow admitted that feeling good about your batting, no matter the format, is a huge part of cricket’s mental battle.

“If you’re coming back in with confidence and off the back of scoring runs, no matter what format it is, and you are able to harness those approaches and you’re going out with an amount of confidence that’s out there, then I think it’s great,” he said.