With Jonny Bairstow’s glovework in the first Ashes Test garnering a lot of criticism, former Australian wicketkeeper-batter Adam Gilchrist has shelled out some golden advice for the English stumper. According to Gilchrist, Bairstow can make a roaring comeback in the second game of the Ashes if the Englishman can fix some basics of keeping. In a bid to improve his movement and reflex while keeping close to the stumps, Gilchrist suggested Bairstow practice with a tennis ball, a drill which will make him more comfortable while keeping on a bouncy track like Edgbaston. Speaking on The Telegraph’s Vaughany and Tuffers podcast, Gilchrist branded Bairstow as “a talented athlete,” saying “In the next week, he will practise his batting but I bet he does a lot to sharpen his wicketkeeping as well.”
Bairstow appeared quite sloppy behind the stumps during England’s first home Ashes Test against Australia. Though the English gloveman did not face much trouble while collecting faster deliveries, his keeping against spinners was not up to the mark. He was spotted missing a number of easy grabs including a big wicket of Cameron Green during Australia’s second innings which could turn out to be a game-changer from England’s perspective.
Speaking about the miss, Adam Gilchrist said that Bairstow had a good sight of the ball, but he remained “too stiff,” getting confused with the unexpected turn and bounce. According to the Aussie legend, these problems would be resolved if Bairstow does “a lot of drills with a tennis ball, with only his inner gloves on, not the keeping gloves.”
Discussing whether England should replace Jonny Bairstow with their second-choice wicketkeeper Ben Foakes in the upcoming Ashes Test, Adam Gilchrist immediately brought out the reference to himself, recalling he was handed Australia’s wicketkeeper role solely on the basis of his batting prowess while in that era, “old-fashioned” wicketkeepers were mostly preferred.
“I don’t want to put the blowtorch on Jonny, it’s a risk vs reward selection and I was the beneficiary of a period of time when wicketkeepers who batted well began to get the nod. I can’t comment on that system too much,” Gilchrist added.
Despite putting up a below-par performance behind the stumps, Jonny Bairstow was able to show his calibre in batting during the Edgbaston Test. He was one of a few standout batters during England’s first innings, registering a 78-ball 78, a knock which was comprised of as many as 12 boundaries. Bairstow, however, failed to replicate the performance in the second innings, scoring just 20 runs off 39 deliveries.
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