Jonny Bairstow has shown England what they must do to escape with Ashes victory
Pricklier than a hedgehog sandwich when his back's against the wall, finally the chances are beginning to stick for Jonny Bairstow.
The king of Bazball claimed some of the criticism was “out of order” when he shelled half a dozen chances earlier in the series. But at Old Trafford, England's wicketkeeper produced the second-best catch of his Test career to dismiss Mitchell Marsh in the first innings – the best one was intercepting that Just Stop Oil clot who tried to sprinkle his orange pixie dust on the pitch at Lord's last month.
And England were in safe hands again when Bairstow clung on to end Marnus Labuschagne's 11th Test hundred in Manchester's gloom with a view.
When the rain gods relented and play started at 2.45pm, for two hours they were thwarted by Labuschagne and Mitchell Marsh's robust fifth-wicket alliance. It felt like a slow puncture inexorably removing the oxygen from England's dreams of going to The Oval next week with the urn still at stake.
Then Joe Root, required to turn his arm over because umpires Joel Wilson and Nitin Menon refused to let home skipper Ben Stokes persist with an all-pace attack, made one of his off-breaks bounce and Bairstow, juggling Labuschagne's palpable edge, grabbed the hot potato. If that moment was a sign of England's luck turning, it was also confirmation that fate may at last have called off its persecution of Bairstow's glovework.
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For three matches, the great Gingerbeard Man had been panned by social media 'experts' who insisted Ben Foakes would have been a better bet behind the stumps because he catches everything like a Venus fly-trap. Yes – but could Foakes have played an innings like Bairstow's 81-ball 99 not out on Friday, which demoralised the wilting Aussie attack to the gates of surrender? No chance.
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Jonny Bairstow has shone in the fourth test (PA)
If it was a gamble to recall a player whose ankle was held together by nine pins, a six-inch plate and a wire thread after major surgery 10 months ago, any handling errors should have been on the selectors, not on Bairstow. When both elements of his game – explosive batting and respectable keeping – are in good order and the stars align for him, Bairstow is not expendable: He is Bazball's crown jewel.
Root's intervention, as Labuschagne and Marsh threatened to usher the Aussies to safety, was only required because Wilson and Menon literally took a dim view of Stokes trying to restore 96.5mph Mark Wood's missiles to the attack. Wood's capture of Steve Smith on Friday evening meant that, for the first time, a Test XI included six players with at least a century of wickets each.
But after the delayed resumption, try as they might, between them Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad, Chris Woakes, Moeen Ali, the unused Stokes and Wood himself had made little headway before the umpires stepped in. In conditions most people would class as broad daylight, Wilson and Menon – both wearing sunglasses – vetoed Wood's express pace and threatened to run amok with light meters, cricket's most useless toys.
If England hope to be tripping the light fantastic in the murk and nettles on Sunday evening they will need to take every chance - like their born-again keeper.
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