Alec Stewart backs struggling Bairstow – Cricket News Update
Former England captain, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Alec-James-Stewart-c43081, has stepped forward in support of struggling batsman Jonny Bairstow, saying that it is too early to write the young Yorkshireman off and hoped the rookie batsman will soon overcome his weakness against the short ball.
"Bairstow is a young player with huge potential who is still finding his feet in the Test match arena, but I haven't seen anything to suggest he can't be a fine Test cricketer,” the former wicketkeeper batsman wrote in his column for BBC on Wednesday.
The 22-year-old Bairstow, who made his Test debut during the ongoing home Test series against West Indies, found himself vulnerable against short balls. After an unimpressive debut at Lord’s, where he could score 16, 0 not out, the right-hander was attacked
by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/KAJ-Roach-c1758 with terrific short balls before being dismissed for 4 runs, and did not get a chance to bat in the second innings, as England won the match by nine wickets.
But Stewart said that it will be too early to judge the young middle order batsman on the basis of just two Test appearances. He further added that Bairstow has the ability and will quickly respond.
"In my view, people have been far too quick to cast doubt over Bairstow's credentials as a Test player,” said Stewart, 49, who played a record 133 Test matches and averaged 39.54 with the bat.
"He was given a working over by Roach and was eventually caught off a leading edge, but it's far too early to say whether he has a genuine problem with short-pitched bowling or whether it was simply a bad 10 minutes, which everyone has at times in their
batting careers,” http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Stewart-c91370 added further.
Citing his own example, the 49-year-old former http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Surrey-c851 batsman said that he had a struggling start to his Test career back in 1990, but managed to overcome the weaknesses and turned out to be one of England’s most successful wicketkeeper batsmen ever.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760 and it is yet to be seen whether the selectors show confidence in the rookie batsman in the third and final Test, starting at Edgbaston next Thursday, June
7, 2012.
Tags: