Form over reputation – why England must pick Jonny Bairstow‏

How rather timely that on the day England were bowled out for 103 at Lord’s and subjected to a 405 run thrashing by Australia, two Ashes hopefuls should score hundreds for their respective counties.

The most in-form batsman in the domestic first class game, Jonny Bairstow of Yorkshire, continued his fine run of form by scoring 139 against Worcestershire at Scarborough, while Nottinghamshire’s James Taylor amassed 163 unbeaten runs on day one against Sussex, before he was eventually dismissed for a career-best 291.

The pair were recently involved in the England’s squad which beat New Zealand 3-2 in their ODI series. Although Bairstow was not picked in the original squad, Jos Buttler’s finger injury meant he was called up for the final match in Durham. The 25-year-old from Bradford duly blasted England to victory with a match-winning 83 runs from 60 balls.

While Taylor’s knock at Horsham was his first championship hundred in an unusually inconspicuous summer for the 5 foot 6 batsman, Bairstow has been scoring heavily in red-ball cricket all season long.

Having made three half-centuries and two centuries prior to his England ODI call-up, Bairstow followed his T20I appearance at Old Trafford with a double-century (219*) against Durham, before hitting 108 at Edgbaston versus Warwickshire a week later.

The man who was cast aside by his country following his bit part role Down Under when England were whitewashed 18 months ago, has now tallied up 906 runs at an average of 100.67 and at an impressive strike rate of 75.44.

Unfortunately for Jonny and James, England’s typical reaction to a crisis is, don’t panic.  But why keep faith with out of nick batsmen when Bairstow is in the form of his life?

Occasionally England will pick a scapegoat and remove him from their batting unit, despite that individual not doing little wrong. Nick Compton, Michael Carberry and James Taylor himself will testify to that. Oh, and Kevin Pietersen of course.

If England do make any changes for Edgbaston, Gary Ballance will probably be the unlucky loser. Opener Adam Lyth has been catapulted into the deep end and not yet given enough of a chance to prove himself at Test level, so he will likely stay. As for Ian Bell, despite being increasingly run-shy efforts at international level, his past efforts will likely result in him keeping his place for his home Test.

Ballance is dreadfully out of form and thus may be the man to step aside, despite the fact that Bell or Root would subsequently have to shuffle up the order to No3, with Bairstow slotting in at No5.

Whether new coach Trevor Bayliss decides to act remains to be seen. But it is surely time for England to stop picking batsmen on reputation, rather than form. They cannot continue to persist with low-confidence batters purely on the basis that they’ve scored runs in the past.

After all, it didn’t hurt Australia to swap the diminishing old guard of Brad Haddin and Shane Watson for the younger, hungrier duo of Mitchell Marsh and Peter Nevill.

England must follow their opponents lead if they are to bounce back from their crushing defeat at Lord’s and revitalise their hopes of winning back the Ashes on home soil.