Chris Waters: No surprises that Bairstow has thrived on international scene

When the Yorkshire batsman burst on the international scene with a match-winning innings against India in Cardiff last month, there was widespread shock at his stunning performance, as though he had spent the previous six months playing on Mars.

Bairstow’s unbeaten 41 off 21 balls with three sixes and a four rightly got correspondents and commentators all excited.

But most of them were saying “who is this lad?” and “where has he come from?”; few seemed to know anything about him – apart from the fact he is the son of the late David – or what he is capable of.

I don’t know about you, but I watched Bairstow’s innings on television with a wealth of admiration and not the slightest surprise.

In fact, I would go so far as to say I expected him to do it, expected him to produce that type of performance.

For I, like a good many of you no doubt, have been watching Bairstow bat like that for much of last season in county cricket.

And although county cricket is clearly a lesser standard, it does not take a genius to detect the spark of genius that exists in the 22-year-old Bairstow.

Indeed, the stunned reaction to Bairstow’s debut was another example of how the county game has become increasingly detached from the national consciousness.

Few newspapers bother to cover county cricket properly any more – the Yorkshire Post, in fact, gives it more coverage than any provincial newspaper, not to mention the majority of national newspapers.

Reports of county games in national broadsheets are often reduced to a few words – information that could just as easily have been gleaned from the scorecard.

Consequently, one of the reasons Bairstow’s arrival was greeted with such incredulity was because many writers and commentators simply don’t get to see any county matches any more, hence have never seen players like Bairstow on the way up.

Even Andy Flower, the England team director, admitted he had never previously watched Bairstow bat.

“I have got to tell you that I don’t know him very well at all,” he told reporters after the match in Cardiff. “I have not had much exposure to him.

“I agree completely that we shouldn’t get overly excited, but I can’t remember a debut like that. Not many people can strike it as cleanly as that; not many people are that talented.”

He can say that again.

Of course, Flower is fully occupied with the England side and a hectic international schedule.

He has neither the time nor opportunity to watch the likes of Yorkshire in action, so has to rely on his network of selectors to tell him who is performing well at county level.

In the old days, those concerned with running international teams were not so detached from the domestic environment.

Nowadays, international cricket – with its interminable diet of Test matches and tours – is a full-time job, just as writing about it for a living is a full-time job too.

Bairstow’s sudden surge to prominence reminded me of when Kevin Pietersen emerged on the international scene in 2004-05.

As cricket correspondent of the Nottingham Evening Post when Pietersen first came to England in 2001, I had the benefit of watching him play several seasons for Nottinghamshire and it was obvious – blindingly obvious, in fact – that he was streets ahead of anyone else on the circuit.

And yet, when Pietersen stepped up to the full England side, the reaction among many observers who never get near a county match was one of utter astonishment when he proceeded to destroy South Africa in a one-day series.

This time last year, I ventured that Bairstow was the best young batsman I have seen in county cricket since Pietersen emerged.

Some probably thought I was bonkers and/or biased seeing that Bairstow had yet to score a first-class hundred or a one-day hundred at the time.

But I make no claim on a personal level, for you have probably long-since recognised Bairstow’s potential for yourself.

However, it is a sorry state of affairs when a young player who is so obviously talented has to reach the full England team before people wake up and smell the coffee. The time has now come to update my assessment of the blossoming Bairstow.

Not only is he the best young batsman I have seen in county cricket since Pietersen, he is also, in my view, an even better batsman than Pietersen.

In fact, I think there is a strong case for saying that Bairstow is England’s best batsman full stop in terms of outright talent, if obviously not track record at this early stage of his career.

Pietersen and Ian Bell would rival him to the title but Bairstow, in my opinion, is more gifted than both. Of course, Bairstow is still very young and, like all young players, is bound to experience dips in form.

Like Pietersen, however, he seems to thrive on taking his game to the next level and seems undaunted by the plaudits now coming his way.

I have already seen enough to convince me that Bairstow should be playing Test cricket immediately as a batsman/wicketkeeper and featuring for England in all forms of the game.

His glove work has come on leaps and bounds for Yorkshire this summer and I can see no justification for selecting Matt Prior ahead of him.

If you can whack a 53-ball hundred as he did for an England XI against a Hyderabad XI last Tuesday, you have got to be one hell of a player – regardless of the opposition. And if you can do that just a few games into your England career, you have got to be a very special talent indeed.

A few weeks ago, some people had never even heard of Jonny B.

Soon they won’t be able to stop talking about him.