IND vs ENG: 'Take out Bairstow..', Alastair Cook angry at Brendon McCullum before the fourth test

India and England's five-match Test series has taken an intriguing turn lately. The England team is now trailing the series 2-1 despite winning the opening game. The team has now suffered two straight losses. Both teams have batted aggressively in this series. India has now also adopted the 'baseball' strategy from England. However, a lot of England players are failing to score quickly while trying to bat in this series. Jonny Bairstow, the wicketkeeper-batsman, is one of these names.

In this series, Bairstow's bat has been utterly silent thus far. 'Baseball' is the primary cause of this. These players score a lot of runs when they play natural cricket. However, in their attempts to score quick runs in this series, both have been utter failures. In three test matches, Bairstow has only managed 102 runs in six innings thus far. His average over this time has only been 17. Furthermore, Bairstow has not had an exceptionally high strike rate. With a strike rate of 58, he has scored these runs. 37 runs is his highest score to date.

Thus far in this series, Bairstow has played innings of 0, 4, 25, 26, 37, and 10 runs. In such a situation, former England captain Alastair Cook has suggested dropping him from the fourth match. Cook supported the inclusion of Dan Lawrence in place of Bairstow for the Ranchi Test.

Alastair Cook told TNT Sports, 'He has had a bad tour so far and it is difficult to keep doing that in India. I am not saying that he will not play the Test again. But it's nice to have someone who is away from what the series has been like so far.

He said, 'When you are not scoring runs, some bowlers put pressure on you, so I will give a chance to Dan Lawrence.' But another former captain Michael Atherton feels that the England team management will retain Bairstow in the team. Atherton said, 'Bairstow has been important for this series, so I don't think we will leave him at this important moment.'

Meanwhile, England coach Brendon McCullum has said that he will ignore outside voices and support Bairstow. He said that I have not seen the wicket but I hope Jonny will be playing, yes from our point of view, we have to keep giving him confidence. The England coach said: 'Block out the outside noise and keep him in the present and focus on what he wants to achieve, I'm sure Jani will do well. I spent time with Jonny and reminded him what a great player he is.