Jonny Bairstow is enjoying the form of his life as he slammed twin centuries to help England beat India by 7 wickets in the rescheduled fifth Test match at Edgbaston. Bairstow scored a counter-attacking century in the second innings as England chased down the record target. He struck 15 boundaries and hit once over the ropes in his 114-run knock.
It was Bairstow’s second ton of the match as he had made 106 off 140 balls in England’s first innings. Under the new management of Brendon McCullum as head coach, England have played a fearless brand of cricket recently in red-ball format and Bairstow has been the player who has flourished the most with ‘BazBall’ coming to play.
IND vs ENG 5th Test Day 5 Highlights
The 32-year-old said that he endured tough times in the last few years but everything is back on track as he is enjoying England’s attacking brand of cricket.
“It is great fun at the moment. The last month has been fantastic for the lads and the smiles on their faces when everyone does well is a massive part of it. I am stripping it back to the basics. The last few years have been tough on me but the last few months have been fantastic. Fair play to everyone who went through that,” Bairstow said in the post-match presentation after being named Player of the Match.
Bairstow admitted that England might not win every match with the current approach but they want to continue with it.
“Day five was over in 90 minutes. I just have an enjoyment factor now. I am not afraid of failing and just want to put the pressure on the opposition. We are going to lose games with the approach we have, but it is a positive fun brand of cricket to play,” he said.
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Talking about England’s record-breaking 378-run chase, Bairstow said that the Indian bowlers try to intimidate them but the English batters soaked the pressure well to get over the line.
“The chase was all under control. They have some world-class bowlers and you just have to soak the pressure. They try to intimidate, they have some fantastic players and it was about trying to shift the pressure on them. There are going to be phases when they are going to play really well. There was a period when it started reversing as well,” Bairstow added.
He further talked about his unbeaten 269-run stand with Root and said that batting with the former skipper is special to him.
“And today morning was a different morning. Root and me are just two lads from Yorkshire. We have grown up playing together and spent a lot of time together from the Yorkshire academy days to the Test team now. Special to play with him,” he concluded.
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