Jonny Bairstow shows England what they missed in the Ashes

Bairstow hit five sixes and a four against the left-arm spinner en route to an unbeaten 85 from 45 balls as Sunrisers Eastern Cape whacked Pretoria Capitals.

It came on the very day that Jamie Smith - preferred to Bairstow as England’s wicketkeeper - played his horror shot against Marnus Labuschagne in the Sydney Test, gifting his wicket in one of the lowlights of a desperate series.

Smith finished the Ashes with 211 runs from 10 innings at an average of 23.44, an average eclipsed even by Jofra Archer.

Others used in the top-seven fared even worse, Ben Stokes averaging 18.40, Ben Duckett 20.20 and Ollie Pope 20.83, while Zak Crawley was scarcely an improvement with 27.30.

Would not Bairstow, realistically, have done better?

It is difficult to argue convincingly to the contrary, and yet he no longer has a central contract and, at the age of 36, has not played international cricket now for over 18 months.

Age, as they always say, is just a number and the body of evidence in Bairstow’s favour speaks for itself - 100 Test matches (average 36.39 with 12 hundreds), 107 one-day international appearances (average 42.97 with 11 hundreds), and 80 T20 international appearances at an average just below 30.

Form comes and goes and Bairstow undoubtedly had his challenges before losing his place, not least an extremely serious leg injury from which he showed trademark determination to bounce back strongly.

But I know who I would rather have seen walking out in the Ashes to carry the fight to Australia as the series lurched from one setback to the next, and, with all due respect, it would not have been Smith, or even Ben Foakes.

On a tour when England’s attitude in general was called into question, Bairstow’s passion and pride would have been just the ticket.

It is difficult to imagine him giving his wicket away in such reckless fashion as we saw from so many, while his big-match experience is not in doubt.

Bairstow honed that experience, lest we forget, in his early days at Yorkshire, enjoying an invaluable grounding at first-class level and producing match-winning performances in the County Championship.

He learnt how to build exactly the sort of innings played by Joe Root and Jacob Bethell at the SCG, England’s only century-makers of a one-sided series, and how to adapt his game to a variety of bowlers and to different conditions.

Alas, following their disappointing showings against India and Australia in recent times, series from which so much had been expected, England have dropped to seventh in the World Test Championship, a tournament that may be of the tinpot variety but which at least affords some barometer of quality and standing.

Bairstow has a proven track record against both countries - indeed, 49 of his Test appearances came against Australia or India, including four of his Test centuries, two of which arrived Down Under.

Moving forward, England should start with a clean state at the start of the domestic season and pay close heed to performances in county cricket.

If Bairstow or anyone starts the year strongly, the door to selection should not be closed.

In contrast to those woeful batting figures from England, Bethell’s brilliant 154 in Sydney lifted him to the top of England’s batting averages in the Ashes at 51.25 despite making only 51 runs in his three previous innings.

He, Root (44.44) and Harry Brook (39.78) were the only England batters to average over 30. Root made England’s other two centuries, his first in Australia, and there were only eight half-centuries to back them up – meaning England had only 11 individual scores over 50 in 10 innings, set against 14 ducks.

Australia also only had three batters average over 30, though Travis Head was at 62.90 with three centuries in his series-leading 629 runs and the majestic Steve Smith averaged 57.20.

Alex Carey (46.14) completed the trio, while Beau Webster made 71 not out in his only innings to finish without an average.