Sunrisers Hyderabad opener Jonny Bairstow on Saturday expressed his desire to help the team win the next two games and take few steps closer to making the Indian Premier League playoffs before heading back to join England’s World Cup camp.
Bairstow will play two more games for Hyderabad – against Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday, and defending champions Chennai Super Kings in Chennai on April 23. After that, he will go back home to prepare for the World Cup with the rest of the England One-day International squad.
“So far it has gone well. To be in the top five leading run scorers...it is really very pleasing,” Bairstow said.
“Hopefully I can finish on a high in the next two games as well and we could be in the position to make the play-offs by the time I leave,” he added.
All the English players featuring in the ongoing IPL will flying back home. Currently placed fifth on the highest run-scorer’s list in the ongoing IPL, Bairstow’s absence will be a big blow for the Hyderabad. In his debut IPL season for the franchise, the opener has scored 365 runs so far in eight games at an average of 52.14, including a hundred and a half-century.
“We get back after the Chennai game on April 23. Then we’ve got the World Cup camp. We then play Pakistan in the five-ODI series and then we’ve got two warm-up matches in which we play Afghanistan and Australia. And then we go into the World Cup.
“It’s a lot of cricket leading into the World Cup. And then we’ve got five Ashes Tests after that,” Bairstow said.
England’s World Cup camp will be followed by a lone ODI against Ireland on May 3 and then the limited overs series against Pakistan, comprising one T20I and five ODIs, commencing on May 5.
Asked which team according to him has the best chance of clinching the World Cup title this time, Bairstow said: “Lots of teams who could win it and there would be upsets along the way. West Indies could win a game from nowhere. Then there is Afghanistan, who would probably bowl 30-40 overs of spin.
“In England, you know you do not have pitches like India, which is really dry. Sometimes the pitches could turn in England.”
Bairstow, along with David Warner, formed one of the deadliest opening combinations in the IPL this season.
“When it comes to the balance of team, you don’t know which four overseas players are going to play for a franchise in the IPL. But to be given the nod is really pleasing. It is the first time we have played together.” he said.
On how he and Warner would approach a game, the Yorkshireman explained: “Every discussion is different. When you open the batting you talk about assessing the conditions. Talk about different types of bowlers, different pitches. When you are chasing 200 and when chasing 130...it is completely different conversations.
“We both play a lot of cricket, so it is case of putting those experiences. Although you can’t plan it down to minuscule details [how many boundaries and sixes you are going to hit]. There are different bowlers, field settings and each ground is different. We loom to play good cricketing shots.”
Workload ‘part and parcel’ of cricket
After being picked up by Hyderabad at the IPL auctions despite him playing more Tests than T20s, Bairstow said it was fantastic to have great mentors, coaches and teammates.
“If you see, I had been batting consistently at 6 or 7,” he said.
“I have never batted at No 3 or 4 in first-class or Test cricket, so it was a completely different challenge. I am enjoying my cricket to be honest. It has been very refreshing for me to come to a franchise and hopefully this is a starting point for many more years in the IPL.”
Bairstow rejected the notion that playing too many IPL matches would burn out the players ahead of the World Cup.
He said: “Cricket is cricket and I think in IPL you play 14 games in six weeks and that is not too many. It is part and parcel of playing cricket. You play Test cricket and that is full five days...the guys bowl 20 overs in a day.
“However, there is lot more travelling. You travel at strange times as the evening games finish around mid-night. But it is good.”
Bairstow said that the standard of competition at IPL is very high. “You got some of best cricketers playing in the IPL. Only four overseas players can play in a franchise. You look at our bench and there is [Martin] Guptill, [Mohammad] Nabi, Shakib [Al Hasan]...these are some of the guys who could be playing in any of other IPL teams. So the standard is very high here,” said the 27-year-old.
(With PTI inputs)
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