Former England captain Michael Vaughan has shown his concerns over Jonny Bairstow’s Test cricket future after the fifth Test match against India in Dharamsala. Bairstow, who is going through poor form, is all set to play his 100th Test match in Dharamsala as well. However, the veteran batter has failed to leave a mark with the bat in the ongoing series and he also scored just 170 runs in 4 Test matches, he has also failed to hit a fifty-plus score so far in the last eight innings.
Vaughan also said that Jonny Bairstow deserves to play his 100th Test but also added that his place in the red-ball squad will be in jeopardy after the India Test series.
In his column for The Telegraph, Vaughan wrote, “Jonny Bairstow plays his 100th Test in Dharamsala and I am delighted about that. It’s a great triumph of resilience and, even in terms of sentiment, I believe that if you get to 99 caps you deserve the moment of your 100th. However, you can’t escape that he could miss out on his 101st. He hasn’t played well enough across the 10 Tests he’s been back in the side, especially in India.”
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The veteran also observed that Ben Foakes is an outlier in this England team despite his magnificent keeping skills for lacking the power game as well. Ben Foakes has so far played 24 Tests, scoring 1107 runs with two tons and four half-centuries as well. However, the Surrey batter only has a strike rate of 47.06 as well. Vaughan also added that the weakness in Ben Stokes’ approach against spin, needs to work on it more.
He wrote: “I also look at the ‘keeper, Ben Foakes. He has kept magnificently in India, but I get the sense that he’s not in the inner circle with this setup and that his batting still doesn’t suit them. The last Test was a good example: he is great in partnership with a batsman, but struggles kicking on with the tail. Once again, his batting might not be enough however good his keeping is.”
“I look at guys like Ollie Pope and Duckett and think they have had interesting tours. They have each played one stunning knock, but struggled otherwise. Equally, I am staggered at how, for a tall man, Stokes plays from the crease against the spin. Sometimes his forward defence sees his front foot only just past the popping crease. I’d love to see him smother spin,” Michael Vaughan concluded.
