Bairstow returns to happy hunting ground

He inherits the final specialist position – as he did in England’s last Test in Auckland – because of Kevin Pietersen’s absence through a knee injury.

The young Yorkshireman returns to the ground where – again in place of the sidelined Pietersen – he impressed with scores of 95 and 54 against South Africa last summer.

“I’ve obviously got very fond memories of that game. But that’s a very long time ago now,” said Bairstow during the England Lions game.

“It was a very good Test match for me. I was very pleased with the way I did.

“But you don’t tend to look back six months to that; you tend to recall much more recent innings and performances to build confidence.”

“No-one expects to be picked for England. There’s plenty of players out there who’ve scored runs early season – and luckily enough, I’ve been the one that gets the call. I hope I’ll do myself justice.”

Alastair Cook says England must “rectify” the sins of their disappointing 0-0 stalemate in New Zealand, or face the consequences in this month’s two-Test rematch.

National selector Geoff Miller went as close to anyone so far in the England camp to admitting complacency might have played its part for Cook’s tourists, when he spoke of the dangers of “going through the motions” in Test cricket.

In announcing the 12-man squad, which includes Bairstow’s county colleagues Joe Root and Tim Bresnan, he made it clear, too, that better is expected of a team he acknowledges under-performed in New Zealand and are capable of playing at a much higher level.

Only Matt Prior’s heroically defiant and unbeaten century prevented defeat in the final Test in Auckland.

After confirming the anticipated return for Lord’s of fit-again bowlers Graeme Swann and Bresnan, Miller did not shy away from the fact that a significant collective improvement is needed.

“It was very disappointing, and we talked about that,” said Miller.

“But they are capable of playing far, far better than that – and know that – and we hope, I’m quietly confident, that they’ll show they are a better side.”

England had excelled, in Cook’s first tour as Andrew Strauss’s permanent successor as Test captain, by recovering from a landslide opening defeat in Ahmedabad to beat India for the first time in almost 28 years.

After Christmas, however, they failed to replicate those standards in rain-affected draws in Dunedin and Wellington and then when they hung on grimly at Eden Park.

“It makes you realise you can’t just go into a game and go through the motions and win the game because, on paper, you are supposedly superior,” said Miller.

“It doesn’t work like that. These boys know they have to perform.”

He tempered his criticism by admiring England’s resilience in adversity.

“What I must also say is that years ago, if we’d got into those situations, we’d have probably lost that series.

“There was some fight and character shown to actually end up drawing that series.

“There was a positive out of it - although I’d have preferred it to be a different kind of positive.”

Cook’s England, with back-to-back Ashes series this year, remain sufficiently in credit for the selectors to keep faith in their abilities.

“That under-performance, we have done this before,” said Miller. “If players don’t perform for you in a game, it doesn’t automatically mean you’ve got to think ‘we’ve got to bring somebody else in here’. They’ve got to go and show ‘well, you got us into this mess; you get us out of this mess’.

“You don’t just discard somebody because they have had a bad time as a unit.

“You just say ‘right, not good enough, improve’. That’s exactly the message they have been given.

“We didn’t play to the capabilities they have shown in the past, so that has got to be rectified.”

Swann and Bresnan played no part in New Zealand, redirected instead to America for an elbow operation each.

Both have demonstrated well-being with their counties at the start of this season, and Miller said: “They have been very, very positive. The reason for the operations was to get rid of the pain they were showing, which wasn’t allowing them to perform to their best.

“Now they’re pain free and bowling like they were before they had the problems.”

By contrast, more patience will be required before the injured Pietersen returns to the international stage.

Amid reports the mercurial batsman may play his first match next month for Surrey, since limping out of the New Zealand tour with a badly bruised knee, Miller appears cautiously optimistic.

“It’s a gradual improvement. It was nasty injury behind the kneecap. You have just got to take it as a gradual process of improvement and wait and see.”

Medics have so far decided the injury can be treated without surgery. Miller is marginally equivocal on that subject.

“I couldn’t say ‘confident’. From all I’ve heard and having had discussion with him, it doesn’t seem that any surgery will be necessary.”

England squad: AN Cook (Essex, capt), JM Anderson (Lancashire), JM Bairstow (Yorkshire), IR Bell (Warwicks), TT Bresnan (Yorkshire), SCJ Broad (Notts), NRD Compton (Somerset), ST Finn (Middlesex), MJ Prior (Sussex), JE Root (Yorkshire), GP Swann (Notts), IJL Trott (Warwicks).