Jonny Bairstow's century boosts England

London: Jonny Bairstow continued a brilliant year of run-scoring with a Test-best 167 not out against Sri Lanka at Lord’s on Friday. But the debate about whether Bairstow should keep wicket for England intensified when he dropped Dimuth Karunaratne on the second day of the third Test.

At tea, Sri Lanka were 62 without loss in reply to England’s first innings 416, a deficit of 354 runs. Left-hander Karunaratne was 30 not out and Kaushal Silva 31 not out. But Karunaratne should have gone for 28 when he got an edge off all-rounder Chris Woakes only for Bairstow to drop the two-handed waist-high chance.

Even allowing for the possibility that Bairstow was mentally and physically tired after his more than six-hour innings, and that the ball ‘wobbled’ a touch before reaching him, it was still an extraordinary miss by a Test keeper. It is not the first time this series that Bairstow has grassed a routine chance — although Friday’s miss was the most glaring. The selectors who must be tempted to deploy him as a specialist batsman.

SCOREBOARD (at tea)

England (1st Innings): A. Cook lbw b Pradeep 85, A. Hales c Mathews b Herath 18, N. Compton c Chandimal b Lakmal 1, J. Root lbw b Lakmal 3, J. Vince b Pradeep 10, J. Bairstow (not out) 167, M. Ali c Mathews b Herath 25, C. Woakes c and b Herath 66, S. Broad c Mendis b Lakmal 14, S. Finn c Lakmal b Herath 7, J. Anderson c Chandimal b Eranga 4. Extras (lb16) 16. Total (in 128.4 overs) 416.
FoW: 1-56, 2-67, 3-71, 4-84, 5-164, 6-227, 7-371, 8-396, 9-411.
Bowling: Eranga 25.4-2-94-1, Lakmal 27-2-90-3, Pradeep 27-4-104-2, Mathews 13-5-31-0, Herath 36-8-81-4.
Sri Lanka (1st Innings): D. Karunaratne (batting) 30, K. Silva (batting) 31. Extras (lb1) 1. Total (for no loss in 15 overs)  62.
Bowling: Anderson 5-1-18-0, Broad 5-1-28-0, Finn 3-0-12-0, Woakes 2-0-3-0.