IPL 2019: Jonny Bairstow over the moon with successful maiden Sunrisers Hyderabad stint

Sudhir Gupta 08:10 24/04/2019
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  • Jonny Bairstow. Image - BCCI/SPORTZPICS.

    It has been some debut Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign for Jonny Bairstow with the England batsman forging the most successful partnership in the 2019 edition alongside his fellow Sunrisers Hyderabad opener David Warner.

    Bairstow’s maiden IPL stint came to an end on Tuesday with Hyderabad’s six-wicket loss to Chennai Super Kings with the Englishman being dismissed for a duck in his final outing. However, his contributions prior to the CSK defeat had been nothing short of outstanding with the right-hander finishing his season with 445 runs from 10 innings.

    Bairstow averaged 55.62 with the bat in the IPL while maintaining a strike-rate of over 157 and his crowning achievement came in his side’s home clash against Royal Challengers Bangalore where he registered a superb ton.

    Motivating himself for his maiden IPL bow wasn’t too hard to do for Bairstow who was not picked in the 2018 IPL auction despite throwing his hat into the ring.

    “It’s not difficult to motivate yourself at all,” Bairstow told ESPNcricinfo in an interview.

    “It’s a competition that I’ve really, really wanted to play a number of years. You hear stories about people coming over and playing, and it being such a fantastic competition. The fans, how fanatical they are, the atmosphere at the ground.

    “The whole way it’s put together is brilliant. If you can’t motivate yourself to get up and play in front of 30,000 to 40,000 people, then you’re not in the right job.”

    Such has been the impact of the wicketkeeper batsman that he managed to keep out Kane Williamson from the Sunrisers playing XI. Williamson had led Hyderabad to a runner-up finish in the 2018 edition in David Warner’s absence and scored 755 runs over the course of the season.

    “With the four overseas players that can play in any team, and you look at the overseas players that we’ve got within the squad, you’ve got four guys that are not playing currently that can be in any moment. So, no, by no means did I think I’d be starting the tournament,” Bairstow said.

    “I just saw it as an opportunity to go out there and enjoy myself, and play the IPL. That was purely and simply what it was.

    “To experience a new task, a new challenge, to be able to go out and explore the skills that I’ve been working on and go and play in front of a fantastic crowd in that first game at Eden Gardens.”

    With Bairstow’s stint now over, stand-in Sunrisers skipper Bhuvneshwar Kumar has admitted that the Englishman will be a big miss for the remainder of the IPL 2019 campaign.

    “There is no doubt that these guys have done really well but I won’t say (we are) upset. We have got guys who can replace him (Bairstow),” Bhuvneshwar said after Tuesday’s defeat.

    “But the way he performed, we will miss him.”

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