Brilliant Bairstow, the all-round star
Jonny Bairstow has achieved impressive and varied success through a storied career which shows no signs of slowing. A two-time Championship title and Ashes winner with Yorkshire and England, he was also part of our nation’s glorious World Cup triumph in 2019.
Electric Bairstow has played a huge part in the Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum era of Test cricket, particularly at its start when he scored six centuries at home and abroad, helping England to win nine of the pair’s first 10 matches in charge.
In the summer of 2022, he crashed a 77-ball century against New Zealand at Trent Bridge on the way to a final day, match-winning 136. It was England’s second fastest hundred ever in that format.
Unfortunately, the now 34-year-old didn’t play beyond late August due to injury.
Bairstow, the Bradford-born son of the late, great David, is a sporting natural. He also excelled in hockey and rugby union – one of his big passions – for St Peter’s School in York and was on Leeds United’s junior programme.
The Yorkshire Championship-winning summers of 2014 and 2015 were particularly memorable from a domestic point of view. In the latter, he scored a sensational 1,108 Championship runs in only 15 innings at 92.33 with five hundreds and as many fifties.
Bairstow, whose England debut came in ODIs in 2011, is now contracted to IPL side Punjab Kings.
In 2023, he was awarded the Freedom of Bradford and played his 100th One-Day International. In 2024, he will almost certainly reach the same milestone in Test Matches.
UPDATED: Jan 2024.
