Andy Pakes looks at the emergence of Australia's James Pattinson and compares him to his England-capped brother Darren.
Sam Holloway looks at why test match cricket is not going to become extinct just yet
Manraj Bahra looks at the subtle differences between the forms of cricket and how teams shouldn't look to pick the same players in all forms.
Sports Editor James Tompkinson looks at the continuing problem of corruption within cricket as the cases of three Pakistani cricketers accused of spot fixing comes to an end
In what has been a miserable season for Yorkshire in all forms of the game, Bairstow has provided something of a ray of hope for all White Rose fans, and now he has made his international debut I predict that Yorkshire may be seeing substantially less of their star batsman next season. In a County Championship season that ended with relegation for Yorkshire and saw their roses rivals Lancashire secure the title, there hasn’t exactly been a lot for Director of Cricket Martyn Moxon to smile about recently.
However, having already watched the likes of Tim Bresnan make a successful transition from the county game to the international stage, Moxon has reason to feel satisfied with Yorkshire’s work in producing good young English players, of which Bairstow is the latest product. I’m not sure that Lancashire can quite say the same. The Bradford born batsman was the only Yorkshire player to pass 1000 County Championship runs this season, and added to that, he is a very good young wicket keeper. Age is certainly on Bairstow’s side too, and with his full international debut coming at just 21 years old, he is someone who could be around the England set up for another ten or twelve years.
To score 41 runs in your maiden England performance is fairly impressive. However, a player who can come out on debut with his side under the cosh and hit 41 from just 21 balls shows not only an extremely talented cricketer but someone with the right temperament and mental strength to flourish on the biggest stages in international cricket. That’s what England now have with Bairstow, an old head on young shoulders, and it is that which sets him apart from most other young players on the county circuit.
Bairstow’s performances this season have secured him the prestigious Cricket Writers’ Young Player of the Year award, which has previously been won by the likes of Andrew Flintoff (1998), James Anderson (2003), Ian Bell (2004), Alastair Cook (2005), Stuart Broad (2006), Ravi Bopara (2008) and Steven Finn (2010) - certainly a talented bunch! He was also named Man of the Match in England’s final ODI for his memorable debut performance.
However, it is Bairstow’s attitude which suggests that he will succeed in an England shirt in the future. If you listened to his post match interview, he never talked his own performance up, and even played down the chances of him managing to secure a spot on England’s winter touring programme (he will go, the selectors would be mad not to take him now!). That shows that he isn’t the type of person that will get ahead of himself, and that he will just go about him game as normal and let his batting do the talking.
England have been crying out for a middle order batsmen who can adapt his game to all formats in recent years. Jonny Bairstow could definitely be that player, and hopefully he will prove to be a cricketer that both England and Yorkshire can be very proud of in the future.
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