Jonathan Marc Bairstow (born 26 September 1989) is an English cricketer who played internationally for England in all formats as a right-handed wicket-keeper-batter.

With Ben Stokes, he holds the world record for the highest sixth-wicket partnership in Test cricket: 399 against South Africa during England's 2015–16 tour.

[6] Aged eighteen, Bairstow was invited to play Second Eleven cricket for Yorkshire in the 2008 season, making six appearances in the Second XI Championship, in which he scored 308 runs at an average of 61.60.

[7] He was included in Yorkshire's first-team squad for the final County Championship match of the season against Sussex, but was not selected for the starting eleven.

He is the ninth of thirteen Yorkshire players who have won this award; his predecessors included Fred Trueman, Geoffrey Boycott, and Bairstow's team-mate Adil Rashid.

[18] Yorkshire then relived their past glories for the next two seasons winning back-to-back County Championship titles, taking their all-time tally to a record 32.

[4] Having become a regular member of England squads, Bairstow signed a central contract with the national team which has meant him making only occasional appearances for Yorkshire.

[2] In one of his last List A matches for the club, Bairstow scored a career-best 174 from 113 deliveries as Yorkshire defeated Durham by six wickets at Headingley on 3 May 2017.

[28] In 2011–12, Bairstow visited India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as part of various England teams.

[35] Following a successful start to the 2012 season, scoring two centuries for Yorkshire, Bairstow was named in the England squad for the first Test match against West Indies at Lord's in May.

[36] He played in the match, his debut in Test cricket, and was presented with his England cap by close family friend Geoffrey Boycott.

England's early batting struggled against the South African attack and they had been reduced to 54/4 when Bairstow, sixth in the order, joined Ian Bell.

Bairstow continued with help from Prior, Stuart Broad, and Graeme Swann, taking the score to 264 when he was bowled by Morné Morkel for 95.

[42] Bairstow was left out of the England set-up for the next 18 months until, in recognition of his outstanding season for Yorkshire in 2015, he was recalled to the squad for an ODI against touring New Zealand.

[43] Bairstow scored 5 in his only innings at Edgbaston, but England won the match by 8 wickets to take a 2–1 series lead, and made no unenforced changes to the team for the fourth Test at Trent Bridge.

As Wisden described it, Bairstow had reached 95 at lunch on the second day to equal his highest Test score, and he then spent 22 balls getting the next five runs.

Wisden summarised his innings: "A cricketer sometimes too tense to give his best for England had never batted so serenely, remarkable given the carnage Stokes was inflicting".

[47][48][49] Bairstow played in most of England's Test matches during the next six years, although he was left out of the team for the winter tours of New Zealand and Sri Lanka in 2019–20.

In the fourth Test against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground, he scored 113 in the final innings, England's only century of the series which helped them hold on for a draw.

Wisden commented that, in a disastrous series for England (who lost 4–0), "the batters totalled 17 noughts and one spirited hundred from Jonny Bairstow".

[56] In June, playing in the second Test of the series against New Zealand at Trent Bridge, Bairstow hit a match-winning 136 off 92 balls on the fifth day, guiding England to their target of 299.

[65] Bairstow was the inaugural winner of the "Wisden Trophy", launched in April 2023 to recognise the outstanding Test performance of the previous calendar year.

[66] Ten performances were nominated, including three by Bairstow; the others, one each, were by Ebadot Hossain, Usman Khawaja, Tom Latham, Ravindra Jadeja, Prabath Jayasuriya, Marnus Labuschagne, and Harry Brook.

[56] In August 2022, Bairstow was playing golf near his home when he slipped and, in freak circumstances, broke his left leg in three places.

[69] With England in a strong position, the match ended in a draw after the final day's play was abandoned due to heavy rain.

The final Test at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamshala was the 100th played by both Bairstow and India's Ravichandran Ashwin.

[74] In addition to these, Bairstow signed a short-term contract in November 2018 to play for Kerala Kings, alongside Eoin Morgan, in the T10 League in Sharjah.

[3] His England batting coach, Mark Ramprakash, says Bairstow is "a proper batter who can play in all formats" and that he excels "in difficult conditions when the ball (is) moving around".

[76] While Bairstow is capable of playing defensively to keep his wicket intact, Ramprakash feels that he is at his best when he can take "the aggressive option" and attack the bowling.

The title recalls the moment when he scored his first Test century at Newlands and looked up to see "a clear blue sky" as he remembered his father.