England's head coach Brendon McCullum continues to express faith in Jonny Bairstow's ability to turn around his form as the batter gears up to play his 100th game in Dharamsala. Despite a string of low scores in the ongoing Test series against India, McCullum believes Bairstow has the potential to make a significant impact for the team.
Despite his recent struggles, Bairstow's experience and talent make him a valuable asset to the team, and McCullum is optimistic about his ability to deliver when it matters most. Bairstow's highest score in the series so far is 38 runs, highlighting the need for a significant contribution from the seasoned campaigner.
"It'll be really emotional for him," said McCullum in a interaction with the UK media in reference to Bairstow's landmark game.
"Everyone knows Jonny's story. He is quite an emotional character at times and big milestones like that do mean a lot to him. (In this match) he walked taller, looked stronger, had that presence and that real Jonny Bairstow swagger to him. When he has that you kind of feel he's never too far away."
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India have handed England their first series loss in the Bazball era but the head coach remains optimistic about the future.
"There's times in games where we haven't quite screwed down our method just yet. We've lost here, didn't win the Ashes (2-2), but we're a better team than 18 months ago and we've got an opportunity in the next 18 months to do some special shit.
"We'll keep chiselling away at those rough edges. It's not a bad time to be coach of the England team," he said.
He was all praise for rookie spinners Tom Hartley and Shoaib Bashir who exceeded expectations with a combine tally of 32 wickets in the first four Tests. Hartley in fact is the leading wicket taker in the series with 20 scalps.
"It will be a slight frustration of ours if they weren't given opportunities at county level. There's a very real possibility that might be the case but without wanting to dictate to counties because they have their own agendas as well.
"(But) I think you'd be slightly mad if you didn't give them more opportunities in county cricket," hoped McCullum.
Seamers tend to dominate county cricket in which spinners like Bashir and Hartley have a limited role to play.
Inputs from PTI