Bairstow returned to England on May 23 after serving with the Punjab Kings in the IPL, giving him just 10 days to acclimatize to red ball cricket and prepare for the start of summer. He then scored one and 16 in the two innings of the first Test at Lord’s and eight in the first innings of the second, before hitting spectacularly in form in the last two sessions of a dramatic Test at Trent Bridge. “A lot of people said I should not be in the IPL and that I should play county cricket,” Bairstow said. “But you are playing against the best in the world in the IPL. Being able to have these gears, to be able to change and lower them, is important. People say it would be fantastic if you had four cricket games with a red ball under your belt. Unfortunately, this does not happen in everyone’s current schedule and we are very lucky to be able to play in some of the best tournaments against the best players in the world. “When it comes to stressful situations, the more you can put yourself under pressure the better. Because those are the situations you have been through in the past, either in the IPL, or in the cricket of the day, or in the cricket with the red ball, that you can visit on such nights. And these opportunities and environments, whether for good or for bad, are what [mean] you are able to produce performances like we did as a team in this game, in the last game, and we hope to do so in the future. ” Bairstow scored just 12 of the first 24 balls he faced at Trent Bridge on Tuesday, before reaching top speed and scoring 124 of his next 68. In all of his innings, he played just 18 singles, with 21 limits, including seven sixes. “The pride it gives me to play cricket test for England, first and foremost, is huge. “And then also to make the contributions they have made, especially when you can say that the backs are on the wall or that they are difficult periods of play,” he said. “I’m very proud of the fact that sometimes when the chips fall, you have to stand up. This can be something you are born with, it can be something you have deep inside you that springs from within you in those moments. “But as a cricketer, that’s something I’m very proud of.” Joe Root’s first century on the Trent Bridge helped him overtake Marnus Labuschagne to return to No. 1 on the International Cricket Council’s Test Drum standings. It was the Yorkshireman’s fourth test tone in 2022 and now has seven in the last 12 months. Labuschagne recorded a total of 505 runs in this period (in 14 innings) with an average of 38.8 while Root managed 1,480 (in 27 innings), with an average of 57.8. Steve Smith is third in the standings, ahead of Pakistani Babar Azam and New Zealander Kane Williamson. The Spin: sign up and receive our weekly email cricket. Unfortunately for England, the ICC fined them 40% of the match fee and deducted two World Championship Test points for their slow interest rate in the second test, estimating that they were two overs less than their target after the time margins were taken into account. The ICC fines players up to 20% of their match fees and deducts one WTC point for each over their hand that fails to roll in the allotted time. New Zealand ingenious Michael Bracewell tested positive for Covid-19 after his team lost at Trent Bridge. Bracewell showed symptoms on Wednesday morning and became the second member of the team to be infected with the virus after captain Kane Williamson, who missed the second test after a positive result on the eve of the match. He will now be out for five days, but will be available to play in the final Test at Headingley next Thursday. The rest of the New Zealand team is conducting a new round of rapid antigen testing on Wednesday to determine if there was a wider outbreak within the team.
