Record-breaker Bairstow still hungry for runs

DHAKA: He’s already become the most prolific wicketkeeping batsman in a calendar year and with six Tests still to go, Jonny Bairstow has the opportunity to set a record beyond reach — and silence his critics once and for all.

“It’s a pretty amazing feeling,” said England’s Bairstow as he reflected on his achievement in shattering Andy Flower’s 16-year record for most runs by a gloveman in Test match cricket.

“There were a few mumbles floating around that I wasn’t good enough,” he admitted ahead of the second Test against Bangladesh which begins on Friday (today).

“You go back maybe two years and there are people writing you off to never play Test cricket again, (so) to then come back and prove a few people wrong with the way that I’ve been playing...”

The sentence was left unfinished but the normally self-effacing Yorkshireman is understandably proud of his achievements since the turn of the year, both with the bat and the gloves.

During the first Test in Chittagong, Bairstow surged past Flower’s tally of 1,045 runs in a calendar year during a match-winning partnership with Ben Stokes.

It leaves him just 390 runs short of Michael Vaughan’s tally of 1,481 runs in 2002, the record for the most runs by any Englishman from January to December.