(Cricket News) This week, as he prepares to win his 100th Test cap at the gorgeous HPCA stadium in the fifth and final Test of this India-England series, Jonny Bairstow is ready to welcome the tears. His odyssey, which started in May 2012 at Lord’s, will come to an end in front of the Himalayas when he becomes the 17th English player to feature in 100 Test matches.
Bairstow, who also achieved 100 ODI caps during the World Cup last year, described the location as “simply lovely.” There isn’t, in my opinion, a more magnificent field in existence. One of my favorite destinations is Cape Town, but here in Dharamsala, when you take a moment to gaze up at the mountains covered in snow and all that goes with it, it is just amazing.”
On Monday, Bairstow’s close friends and family arrived. They will be present with him on Thursday during the cap ceremony. Their time is just as important as his, especially for his mother Janet, her boyfriend, and their nine-month-old baby. Following the 1997 suicide of their father, David, she raised Jonny and his sister, Becky. Back then, Jonny was eight years old.
At the time, Janet was also fighting breast cancer, which came back in 2012 and caused Bairstow to return home after his first tour of India. Because of all of this, her presence in India is all the more remarkable.
She has showed a great deal of bravery and strength in raising us both and helping us along the way. We would not be here today without her,” he remarked. Everyone who has been a part of the journey, from the people at the Yorkshire academy to Baz and the guys here, has contributed, so it is a wonderful occasion for them all. Some are better than others, but you have to select the better pieces, and everything fits together in the end to form the puzzle.”
His first of 12 hundreds in Cape Town in 2016 ranks highly among his favorite Test matches. Similarly, the home matches in 2022 at Trent Bridge and Edgbaston, against New Zealand and India, respectively, had an incredible run of four hundreds in five innings.
With a match-winning 71 not out in the second innings at Headingley against the Blackcaps wedged in between, he made one in each of the innings against India. Among the excellent supporting cast is even a defeat by South Africa at Lord’s at the end of his debut summer in 2012.
Bairstow remarked, “It is hard to move beyond that summer,” referring to the home season of 2022 during which he amassed 681 runs at an average of 75.66 in six Test matches. “The way the team came together and the way everyone adopted a cricket playing style that the world began talking about made them really special Test matches.”
“Playing alongside and sharing the field with some of the best players in the game has been an absolute pleasure. When I first started, the lineup seemed very good: Bell, Prior, Swann, Anderson, Bresnan, Broad, Cook, Trott, Pietersen, and Strauss.
“Take a look at the guys you have played with throughout your life. Rooty, Jimmy is still going. Since I was twelve, I have played with. Since we were thirteen, we have played against Ben to share the trip with those guys. At Under-11s, Woody and I faced off against one another, and we laugh proudly when we think back on it.”
Even with this indulgence in nostalgia, England still has to better their 3-1 scoreline. In addition to offering a chance to salvage a series loss, this fifth Test offers them the chance to make history by being the first team to win two Tests in India since the host side’s final series loss in over a decade was caused by Alastair Cook’s charges.
See more: Ravichandran Ashwin Reflects on Career Highlights.
