NEWS
Follow UsJonny Bairstow had a Test series to forget but has really turned it around in the limited-overs leg of England’s tour of India. With the T20 World Cup a few months away, the England batsman is keen on getting acclimatised to the conditions during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021.
"It will be a great opportunity to play at different grounds that we could potentially be playing in the T20 World Cup. Also to see how different teams will go about bowling in those conditions," Bairstow said during a virtual press conference on Wednesday.
"Because, naturally with the dimension of the grounds and also wickets, it varies how attacks go about defending totals and batsmen go about setting them, so it will be an interesting competition."
Bairstow, who plays for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the IPL will kick off his IPL campaign with a match against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in Chennai on April 11.
Speaking of Chennai, Bairstow said, "Obviously playing over here, it was a new ground, it was a lot of learning but the games that we have got in IPL will be in Chennai. However, the acclimatisation in India, whether it would be to the conditions or weather or in general will hopefully help.”
"But nothing can be taken for guaranteed, we know the quality of the competition and quality of the opposition...
"... to be a part of the IPL, if you can come and do well in that hopefully then leading up to the World Cup, can only put in a good frame of mind because we have quite a few players playing in that."
England lost key moments
Bairstow put England in pole position to chase down 318 with his blistering 66-ball 94 but reckons there was nothing wrong with their game plan, but his side lost the key moments. "To get ourselves in a situation and ahead of the game, we would have liked to get over the line ... Everyone has gone back last night hurt, it is not a good feeling to lose a game," he said.
"Our game plan has been very good in the last four years. I don't think even yesterday we did a huge amount of wrong. There were key periods where we didn't capitalise on, we lost the key moments in the game."
But Bairstow sees positives in the loss as well, as they are building blocks ahead of the T20 World Cup. "I think it is another building block towards that (T20 World Cup), we have spoken about building blocks ahead of 2019 World Cup, putting ourselves in different situations and come out better players and it will test us again.
"We are missing a few guys and it is an opportunity for people to play in different roles and also implement the skills that the players who are rested have within the team... You need to have the options."
Life in bio-bubble difficult
Speaking about staying in the bio-secure bubble for months, Bairstow said, "It is very difficult ... from January 2nd till now it has been just 10 days that I was home. In September when we went into the bubble at Manchester, up until Christmas, obviously there were a couple of weeks off till January. "So it is tough being away and people are going to need rest. It is not easy just turning up and playing cricket
"Living at a certain floor of the hotel, not able to leave the hotel ... being away from families is tough and the break that people are getting through the winter has been important for people's mental and physical health."
With the World Cup and The Ashes to follow later this year, Bairstow feels England’s rotation policy was justified. On the basis of this policy, it was Bairstow who was rested for the first two Tests against India.
"We all know the amount of cricket that is coming up, we are only 7 months away from World Cup and back of that is Ashes and then West Indies tour next winter, and that's without mentioning anything about English summer, so it is not easy thing scheduling when people will need a slight break."