Jonny Bairstow's 5 best catches in Tests

Jonny Bairstow, who is playing in his monumental 100th Test in Dharamsala against India starting on Thursday, is a fantastic all-round cricketer, and England are fortunate to have him.

Despite being a wicketkeeper-batter by trade, Bairstow has also excelled while fielding and taken some brilliant catches without his big gloves on.

Although he got out after scoring a quickfire 29 off just 18 balls, Bairstow set the tone for the English innings in Dharamsala on Thursday, which his colleagues failed to capitalize on.

Though he is a veritable giant with the bat in hand, it is on the field, either with his gloves or without them, that the 34-year-old is in his best element. In this article, we bring to you the five best catches that Jonny Bairstow has taken in the course of his Test career.

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#1 Catch of the 2023 Ashes

The 2023 Ashes were quite challenging for Jonny Bairstow, be it in front of the stumps, or behind them. However, the catch he took to dismiss Mitchell Marsh off Chris Woakes' bowling in the fourth Test at Old Trafford silenced his critics in more ways than one.

After having had a controversy erupt owing to stumping in the Lord's Test, Bairstow seemed to be falling out of favour with the public. However, this catch of Marsh's firmly put him back on top of their Christmas card lists, not least because he was wrong-footed and had to dive full-length to his right to take it.

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#2 KL Rahul, 2021

Another fine catch that Jonny Bairstow took, this time without his gloves on, was of KL Rahul in the third Test between England and India at Headingley in 2021.

With Craig Overton bowling a fine outswinger at length outside off, Rahul had to merely put the bat on the ball to get a thick outside edge. The ball went to the slip cordon, aiming to land exactly between Bairstow at second slip and Joe Root at first.

That is when the former stuck his left hand out and grabbed the catch to send his colleagues into raptures of delight. It was one of the finest catches seen in Test cricket.

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#3 Neil Wagner, 2022

Another brilliant catch that Bairstow took, also without gloves on, was that of Neil Wagner in the Headingley Test against New Zealand in 2022.

Jack Leach was bowling and tossed one up for the left-handed Wagner to slog out of the park. The Kiwi stepped down the track and tried to heave it all the way to Manchester but ended up skying it just wide of Bairstow at the long on region.

The latter ran all the way and then tracked sideways to extend his arms and roll over sideways to complete a fine catch. All his teammates ran up to him to congratulate him for pulling off the spectacular.

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#4 Umesh Yadav, 2021

Jonny Bairstow celebrates by falling onto the ground.

Umesh Yadav was one of Jonny Bairstow's victims when the latter dived to his right to complete a fantastic catch in the final Test between England and India at the Oval in 2021.

This was when Bairstow was keeping wickets, and came off Ollie Robison's bowling. The Yorkshireman was brilliant in anticipating the outside edge and moving to his right before extending his right hand to pouch the catch.

Robinson was delighted but Yadav was not, nor was his partner at the other end, Mohammed Siraj.

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#5 Tom Latham, 2022

Without gloves, Jonny Bairstow picked up another stunner when he dived forward - albeit on the rebound - to complete a catch of Tom Latham off James Anderson's bowling in the first Test at Lord's in 2022.

Anderson was coming from around the wicket but managed to get the ball to straighten just a bit to take Latham's outside edge towards Bairstow at third slip.

Although it should have been a fairly straightforward catch for the Yorkshireman, the ball hit his chest and was about to fall to the ground on the rebound. However, he reacted in the nick of time and dived forward full-stretch to prevent the ball from getting dropped.