'We trust each other's game' - Jonny Bairstow on partnership with Ben Stokes

England put up a dominating performance over New Zealand in the recently concluded three-match home Test series, which they won 3-0. It was Ben Stokes’ first assignment as the England captain, and one of the top performers for the side in the series was Jonny Bairstow. The English batter said that he and his captain trust their game and play without much chatter.

Bairstow felt that they do not need to talk all the time, and just play their game, as he said that they have been doing it for a few years now. In the last decade or so, Bairstow and Stokes have been the constants in the middle-order for England. And yet again, in the series against the Kiwis, they rescued the England innings a few times.

“We’ve done it for quite a few years, haven’t we? There actually wasn’t that much said between us in the middle,” Bairstow told Nasser Hussain in an interview with The Daily Mail.

You don’t need to be saying things all the time: Jonny Bairstow

Bairstow and Stokes have had some great partnerships in the past, including the one in Cape Town when the duo put on 399 runs for the sixth wicket, with Bairstow bringing up his maiden Test century and the all-rounder scoring a blistering 258.

“We trust each other’s games now to just go and play, which is a really good thing to have. You don’t need to be saying things all the time,” said Bairstow.

Speaking about Stokes’s captaincy, the wicketkeeper-batter said that the former has been tactically good on the field and very clear of what he expects from the team off the field. “He hadn’t done an awful lot of captaincy before taking over but he’s had a lot of experiences, both on and off the field, that he’s been able to bring together in order to lead this side,” said Bairstow.