Jos Buttler has a golden opportunity to become England's permanent Test wicketkeeper

The third Test at Trent Bridge in Nottingham was equivalent to a nightmare for England as they slumped by 203 runs against India. To add to their agony, Jonny Bairstow, their regular Test wicketkeeper injured his finger in India’s second innings owing to which he will play as a specialist batsman in the next encounter, starting August 30, at The Rose Bowl in Southampton.

Jos Buttler, who keeps wickets in the limited-overs formats, will don the gloves. In the meantime, Trevor Bayliss, the English head coach believes that Buttler can be persisted with as the specialist keeper if he manages to impress. He also believes that convincing Bairstow for giving up the role may turn out to be a tad difficult.

I think he has improved his wicket-keeping

“It’s like any injury, if someone comes in and does well, then you have a decision to make. That’ll be the hard thing, trying to convince Jonny. If that was the way we went, it would certainly be a deep conversation with someone like that. Jonny’s a reasonable bloke,” Bayliss was quoted as saying in Sky Sports.

Bairstow has been a prolific run-scorer for the Brits in the recent times. However, he has been a tad inconsistent in the ongoing series against Virat Kohli’s men. He managed a couple of half-centuries at Edgbaston and Lord’s respectively, but couldn’t deliver at Trent Bridge. Bayliss also hailed him while also highlighting the differences of keeping in Tests and the limited-overs formats.

“[Bairstow] is a world-class batter, we know that. I think he has improved his wicket-keeping over the last couple of years. Jos will have to do some hard work as well. He has been keeping a lot in one-day cricket — but keeping 100 overs-a-day can be difficult, day after day, Test after Test,” he added.

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