Bairstow Gears Up for 100th Test at 'Most Picturesque Ground'
Emotional Englishman Welcomes Family for Milestone Match
While a lot of attention will be on Ravichandran Ashwin's 100th Test wicket, Jonny Bairstow will also reach a comparable milestone on Thursday at the HPCA Stadium.
On this historic day, the England batter is overjoyed to be with his mother Janet, sister Becky, partner Megan, and their nine-month-old son.
Five months back, in Dharamsala, Bairstow achieved his 100 caps in One-Day Internationals.
"I'm happy. Get the Kleenex ready, because I'm kind of an emotional man, he stated on Tuesday.
This place is very gorgeous, Bairstow remarked. There isn't, in my opinion, a more magnificent field in existence. One of my favorite destinations is Cape Town, but here in Dharamsala, when you take a moment to gaze up at the mountains covered with snow and all that goes with it, it's just amazing."
Bairstow considers his home season of 2022, when he averaged 75.66 and scored 681 runs in six Test matches, to be his greatest.
"It's difficult to go beyond that summer," he stated. "The way that everyone adopted a cricket playing style that the entire world began talking about made them pretty special Test matches.
"Playing with some of the best players in the game has just been a sheer joy... When I first started, the lineup seemed very good: Bell, Prior, Swann, Anderson, Bresnan, Broad, Cook, Trott, Pietersen, and Strauss.
"Rooty (Jimmy), with whom I have played since I was twelve, is still going strong. We have played against Ben (Stokes) since we were thirteen, so it has been a journey to travel with those guys."
Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Press Time staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.
