England Test team head coach Brendon McCullum said that they are excited before Jonny Bairstow’s 100th Test next week in Dharamsala. The veteran also admitted that it will be an emotional moment for the swashbuckling batter and they are looking forward to sharing it with him. Bairstow, who made his Test debut in 2012, will become the 17th England player to feature in 100 matches in the format. With the keeper-batter having a forgettable series so far, he will be looking to do well in Dharamsala on the monumental occasion.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday (Feb. 27), he said, “Yes he’ll be playing his hundredth Test. We expect a good Jonny. Jonny loves a milestone too. He won’t shy away from that. He’ll play. It’ll be really emotional for him. Everyone knows Jonny’s story and as you guys will know he is quite an emotional character at times and big milestones like that do mean a lot to him. It’ll be a really emotional time for him and we look forward to sharing it with him,” McCullum said.

The veteran batter had played a couple of promising innings in Ranchi but got out cheaply. Despite Bairstow’s struggles, Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum have backed him as well.

“Both of those guys have been outstanding in this series. When we picked Tom and Bash, there was probably a little bit of hesitation from others, and from us there was a bit of apprehension, too. We thought they had the skills, but will they be good enough at this level? What we’ve seen is they are definitely good enough. It will be a slight frustration of ours if they weren’t given opportunities at county level,” Brendon McCullum concluded.