Jonny Bairstow says the offer to follow in the footsteps of his late father David as captain of Yorkshire was too good to turn down.
As revealed by Mail Sport on Monday, Yorkshire identified the 35-year-old Bairstow as the man to lead them on their return to the top flight of the County Championship. His dad was club captain between 1984-86.
‘He played here for 20 years and was captain as well for those years you’ve alluded to,’ Bairstow said.
‘To be asked to do it, it’s something that’s difficult to turn down. At the club, there’s not many fathers and sons who have done it.’
Bairstow’s ostracising from England squads over the past nine months appears to have made this the perfect juncture of his career to move into a leadership position – Dawid Malan will share the responsibility as Twenty20 captain – although he does not necessarily view it that way.
‘If they’d have asked me 10 years ago I’d have done it. How can you not? It’s one of the biggest clubs in the world,’ he continued.
Jonny Bairstow (right) has lifted the lid on being appointed Yorkshire captain for this season
The former England star has not played international cricket for nine months following an exile
The move sees him emulate his late father David Bairstow (right) as the club’s figurehead
‘Not that you need any extra motivation to play for Yorkshire. Whether you’re captain or not, you want to be one of the eleven people who take the field.’
In addition to Bairstow, who will also keep wicket, Yorkshire will be able to call upon other experienced international batsmen Malan, Joe Root and Harry Brook at times during the opening two-month stanza of the Championship season, and have added seamers Jordan Buckingham and Ben Sears, from Australia and New Zealand respectively, to their bowling ranks.
With a posse of young players led by George Hill, Fin Bean, James Wharton and Will Luxton amongst the most exciting in the country, would it be to much to ask for Yorkshire to push for the title in the first year back in Division One? Incoming coach Anthony McGrath, who experienced that very feat with Essex, has already said he expects to challenge.
And Bairstow said: ‘We need to be grounded in everything we do but you never say never. I firmly believe we are good enough to do it, whether it’s this year or further down the track, we’ll find out.
‘We’re all excited for what’s to come. We’re very proud to be a part of this club and that’s something no one can take away from us – when we do take that field next week, when we’re down at Hampshire, we’ll be putting our best foot forward. We’ll be very proud to be representing the white rose.’
According to assistant coach Mick Lewis, Bairstow will be ‘an idea a minute’ captain, so intensely does he think about the game.
But he will be given a breather when it comes to white-ball cricket, as Malan takes up the challenge of erasing Yorkshire’s name from an unwanted list: they are one of only four counties along with Derbyshire, Durham and Glamorgan never to have won the Blast.
‘Yorkshire’s curse is that when you have so many unbelievable cricketers, you can lose them for half of the tournament,’ Malan said.
Bairstow said he is ‘excited of what’s to come’ and that the players are ‘proud’ to represent Yorkshire
International stars such as Joe Root will be available in various weeks in the early season
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‘But look at this year, you’ve got Adam Lyth, Jonny Bairstow available, maybe a bit of Adil Rashid, two overseas internationals available in James Sutherland and Will O’Rourke for the majority of it. Guys like Dan Moriarty, Dom Bess, Jafer Chohan who have come through and done fantastically well.
‘You look at our squad now, and we haven’t only got 11 to pick from, we have 14 or 15 guys. That’s the depth we haven’t had.
‘It’s very easy to say, ‘We’re going to win it.’ It’s a tough thing to do to win the Blast with 14 games, a quarter-final and finals day. You’ll have really earned the right.
‘It’s about finding the things to put in place so that hopefully Yorkshire can become a powerhouse in white-ball cricket.’
