LONDON: Johnny Bairstow has defended Test cricket and says that he wants to play as much of the longest format of the game as he can for England because “you get remembered for how many Tests you’ve played”.

Test cricket has been gradually marginalised in recent years with T20 increasingly driving the game’s revenues and becoming the chosen career option for many of the world’s top level players. The plight of the Test game was shown in a stark light on the opening day of the first Test between South Africa and Australia in Durban on Thursday (March 1) when the attendance was just over three thousand, a worryingly small number given the quality of the two sides on show.

In recent weeks, Bairstow’s England teammates Adil Rashid and Alex Hales have decided to give up red-ball cricket in favour of seeking out opportunities in the limited-overs game. Although neither were in England’s Test team when they made their decisions, both are in the prime of their careers and could have yet come again in the red-ball format. To give that chance up shows where the balance of power between the formats currently sits.

Despite these challenges, the 28 year-old Bairstow still regards the longest format of the game as the pinnacle and wants it to be protected. “It’s the traditional game, it’s like taking fifteens rugby away and just playing sevens rugby,” he said. “It’s something we’ve definitely got to cherish and play and I want to go on and play as many Tests as I can because you get remembered for how many Tests you’ve played.

“Test cricket is huge, and if we’re not careful then there are going to be more and more people that do it [give up the red ball], because you’ve got lucrative tournaments around the world that people now can go off and earn a heck of a lot of money for five weeks work when the strain and stress [is less] on the body of bowling fours overs comparatively to bowling 24 overs in a day in Test cricket. So whatever way it is we can preserve Test cricket and go forward with that is really important.”

Although Jos Buttler has had the gloves during the one-day series against New Zealand, Bairstow is England’s number one wicketkeeper-batsman in Test cricket. He has become a vital part of Joe Root’s team as his keeping has improved - partly because of his ferocious work ethic - and his batting has blossomed. He scored a brilliant hundred in the third Ashes Test in Perth late last year and averages 47 since the start of 2016.

He has also cemented his place in the ODI side at the top of the order following his recall during last year’s Champions Trophy.

He scored two hundreds during the series against West Indies in September and contributed steadily, if unspectacularly, during the 4-1 victory over Australia in January. He was given a rest after that series, heading back to England and missing a chance to cement his place in the T20 team during the tri-series as a result, but says that was the right decision.

“I kept for a thousand overs in the Ashes, 6,000 balls before we even practiced,” Bairstow said. “You have to be managed, in some ways it’s not feasible to play every game and train every day, batting for hours in the nets. Otherwise you get complete burnout of the squad in two years because of the amount we play. Trev knows his players and he made the right call to say we needed a couple of weeks back home, recharge the batteries, see the families and come back fresh.

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2018