Yorkshire’s Jonny Bairstow still has a Test future, insists Ashley Giles after contract snub

England’s director of cricket insists that Bairstow still has a future in the five-day format after he was the most notable omission from the annual list.

Bairstow retains his white-ball deal along with Yorkshire team-mate Adil Rashid, while their county colleague Joe Root is one of five men with both Test and white-ball contracts.

In addition, Yorkshire’s Dawid Malan and new signing Dominic Bess have been awarded incremental deals which top up their county salary.

Recipients of Test deals and white-ball deals have their salaries paid in full by the England and Wales Cricket Board, which is still in negotiations with the players regarding how much the latest contracts are worth.

Last year, red-ball contracts were reportedly worth around £650,000 and white-ball contracts around £250,000, but cuts are likely due to Covid-19 as the sport battles losses at more than £100m.

Bairstow’s omission from the red-ball list, on which Ollie Pope, Zak Crawley and Dominic Sibley appear for the first time, had been anticipated given that he has played only one Test since September 2019.

But Giles insists that the 31-year-old remains in England’s thoughts and hopes that the setback will only fire him up.

“I hope it leaves him still very hungry to continue and have a really important part to play in the future of English Test cricket,” said Giles.

“It’s a knock for him, I’m sure; Jonny’s played one Test match in a year.

“We only have so many contracts that we award, and it’s a tough call to make because Jonny’s been a very good servant for the team.

“He remains a really important part of what we do.

“He’s a white-ball centrally-contracted player and one of our most dangerous players in that form, and that hasn’t changed,” he added.

“We’ll do everything we can to support him getting back into that Test team.”

Asked how Bairstow had taken his omission, Giles said: “As well as you could expect really, and I mean that genuinely.

“It’s hard news to hear as someone who has played so much cricket for England across all forms, but I think he truly does have a desire to go on and play Test cricket.”

England contracts for 2020-21

Test and white-ball: Jofra Archer, Jos Buttler, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes.

Test only: James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Zak Crawley, Sam Curran, Ollie Pope, Dominic Sibley.

White-ball only: Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Tom Curran, Eoin Morgan, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, Mark Wood.

Increment contracts: Dom Bess, Chris Jordan, Jack Leach, Dawid Malan.