England’s Bairstow expresses sympathy for Foakes after being dropped

Jonny Bairstow said he feels sympathy towards fellow wicketkeeper Ben Foakes after he was left out of the England Test squad for the Ashes warm-up against Ireland.Foakes was dropped to accommodate stumper-batsman Bairstow, who scored six centuries in 2022 before suffering a leg injury in September that kept him out of the Twenty20 World Cup in Australia.In Bairstow’s absence, Foakes established himself as first choice behind the stumps under coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes during the team’s streak of 10 victories in 12 tests."I’ve been in that same position previously around getting dropped so I’ve got a huge amount of sympathy for Ben (Foakes) and for anyone really who gets dropped,” Bairstow, who last kept wicket for England in a Test in 2021, told the BBC yesterday."He’ll be back I’m sure because in the last 12 months he’s been a big part of what we’ve been about, he’s been a big part of the group. It’s never an easy decision and never a position you want to be in.”Former captain Michael Atherton supported the England board’s decision to pick Bairstow over Foakes."My own view is that Bairstow is more likely to help England win a match with bat than lose it with gloves. He would be my choice,” Atherton wrote in his column for The Times newspaper."It is not hard to imagine the destruction he might cause, coming in at number seven against an old ball and a tiring attack.”England will face Ireland at Lord’s on June 1 before the five-Test Ashes series against Australia begins at Edgbaston on June 16.Bairstow feared he’d ‘never walk again’ after horrific leg injury."You wonder whether or not you’ll be able to walk again, jog again, run again, play cricket again,” Bairstow said. "Absolutely, those things do go through your mind. It depends how long you think about them. There are many different things, until you get back to playing, well... you wonder, is it going to feel the same?”Reflecting on the emotions when McCullum informed him of his selection, Bairstow said: "I was buzzing. It filled me with a lot of pride again. I’ve said there’s been some dark times this winter and it’s been tough so to get that phone call after all the emotions you go through and everything else this winter...there’s a huge amount of pride that goes into it. Yes, getting that phone call...it was awesome.”