Bairstow ready to work hard to keep his place

THERE were not too many positives for Yorkshire during 2009.

Jonathan Bairstow was one of them.

The batsman/wicketkeeper played the last 12 County Championship games after making his debut in June.

He scored 592 runs at 45.53 and only Adil Rashid (77.40) and Jacques Rudolph (51.30) averaged more.

Bairstow kept wicket in only three of those matches but has got the gloves this year ahead of Gerard Brophy.

Yorkshire have decided there is not enough room for Bairstow and Brophy in their four-day team, with Adam Lyth recalled to a re-jigged top-order.

Bairstow, 20, is delighted to have got the nod over the

34-year-old South African but is refusing to take his place for granted.

Brophy – who played ahead of his young colleague in Sunday's one-day match against Essex – also averaged over 40 with the bat last summer and kept the pressure on by scoring a magnificent 162 for the second team against Lancashire last week.

"It was a big boost to start the Championship season, but I certainly don't feel I've cemented my place," said Bairstow.

"Gerard is a quality performer and you can never feel safe in professional sport because you never know what's around the corner.

"I could get injured and break a finger and find it hard to get back in the team.

"At this level, I think you're always playing for your spot."

Bairstow's classy batting continues to impress.

In the first Championship game of the summer he top-scored with 81 as Yorkshire chased down 291 to beat Warwickshire at Edgbaston.

He shared a match-winning sixth-wicket stand of 153 in 27 overs with the relentless Rudolph and displayed remarkable maturity for one so young.

Bairstow also showed commendable strength of character after dropping a couple of catches earlier in that game.

Such things are prone to prey on the minds of seasoned veterans, let alone twenty-somethings still learning the game.

"Everyone makes mistakes and you've just got to get on with it," said Bairstow.

"You have to take it on the chin and not let it affect you.

"At Edgbaston, it was just a case of going out there and trying to play my natural game.

"I wasn't dwelling on the catches – I wasn't thinking about that at all – because if you dwell on that sort of thing you won't get anywhere."

Bairstow's keeping is steadily improving and he has worked hard on that side of his game in the winter. He spent time with former England wicketkeeper Bruce French at the ECB Performance Programme camp in South Africa and will only learn from keeping to a varied Yorkshire attack which includes a quality leg-spinner in Adil Rashid and a quality left-arm spinner in David Wainwright.

"The ball's not going into the gloves too badly at the moment," added Bairstow.

"It's not the easiest time of year for keepers when the ball's moving around everywhere and going through at awkward heights, but overall I've been pretty pleased with my work.

"Keeping wicket is another string to my bow and something I'm determined to improve.

"Batting is my stronger suit at the moment, but I'm sure my keeping will get to the same level."

Bairstow epitomises the joie de vivre of a young Yorkshire side and is thrilled with the way the season has started.

"Everyone's delighted with the way things have gone," he said.

"At the start of the season everyone was saying we were going to go down and people were doubting us, but we've already shown we're capable of beating the best.

"We beat Somerset at Headingley the other week and last year they finished in the top three.

"To beat a side like that when they had a full complement of players was an excellent performance."

All that remains is for Bairstow to score the maiden hundred he has threatened for some time.

He has had a number of near misses – including his splendid 70 against Kent at Canterbury last week – and looks to have some big innings in his locker.

"Hopefully, my first century is just around the corner," he said.

"I've had six or seven fifties now and sometimes I've been left not out when all the other wickets have gone down.

"But that's the way it goes sometimes and I've just got to keep working hard.

"As long as I keep doing that and try my best for the team, I'm sure that my first hundred will come."