A better version of Bairstow?

Australian cricket fans will likely remember Jonny Bairstow.

Not because of any particular deeds, but simply because he was there for five of 10 Tests across the quite recent back-to-back Ashes series played out across seven months in 2013 and 2014.

And probably, too, because he has red hair.

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Playing as a batsman in the UK-based 2013 series, Bairstow made scores of 37 and 15 at Nottingham, 67 and 20 at Lord’s, 22 at Manchester and 14 and 28 at Chester-le-Street, before being dropped for the fifth Test at The Oval.

A total of 203 runs at 29. The sort of output that will likely make him quite forgettable as the years wear on.

He backed it up with another unobtrusive set of innings in the return bout, when he appeared suddenly in the wreckage of the tourists’ already failed campaign.

Matt Prior had been dropped and the inexperienced keeper-batsman was left to face the Mitchell Johnson chin music.

In four innings he managed a top score of 21 and exited from view just as quickly as he’d emerged, drifting off into the relative obscurity of the County Championship with Yorkshire.

Johnson too hot for Bairstow in 2013

But that’s where it gets a little more interesting.

Bairstow hasn’t played a Test match since, but those in the know at Yorkshire insist he is a batsman transformed.

A “different beast” even, to quote Jason Gillespie, the County’s head coach and a man considered by many as one of the best in the mentoring business right now.

And the numbers certainly support the theory.

With 980 runs in seven matches (five hundreds, four fifties) at an average of 108, the 25-year-old has been Smithesque in 2015.

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“Jonny is in a very special place right now,” Gillespie wrote in his Guardian column on Monday, shortly before his recall to the England side for the third Test at Edgabston, where one of those hundreds came only three weeks ago.

“It is important that those people who don’t watch much county cricket don’t pipe up with opinions based on his past experience in Test cricket because we’re talking about a different beast right now. Let me tell you why.

“When he returned to Headingley after the 2013-14 Ashes tour, Jonny said he had received plenty of well-intentioned advice regarding his technique and after some conversations we came to the conclusion this had inadvertently created more confusion in his mind.

“So we made a pact: the Yorkshire coaches – myself included – agreed we would not speak to him about his method and instead judge him solely on his returns … in the 18 months that have followed his technique has not been brought up.

“Ultimately we have backed Jonny to take responsibility for his own game and the results are there to see.

“He no longer sweats the small stuff and is enjoying his cricket … An Ashes series will be a step up in the quality of bowling he will face, no question, but he has had a taste and is now hungry for more.”

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Bairstow celebrates another hundred // Getty Images

Bairstow translated his county form for England in the ODI format against New Zealand last month, when he was again recalled – this time for the final contest of a five-match series.

He had one chance to deliver the goods, and he promptly did exactly that, blasting 83 not out to steer England to what some are labelling a ground-breaking series success.

Certainly Bairstow looks a man capable of playing The Trevor Bayliss Way: that is with the intention to attack rather than occupy with bat in hand.

The right-hander’s last three hundreds during his golden run have all come at a strike-rate exceeding 75, including an epic 219 not out scored at a rate of 81 runs per hundred balls faced.

"Consistency-wise I think I am in my best form and striking the ball well and hopefully this will continue,” Bairstow said.

“I have been very positive at the crease this season and will try and take that into the Ashes series. You cannot say how you will play until you are there but I will certainly relish the challenge."

Aside from this recent ‘transformation’, the serious gulf in class between those attacks currently plying their trades on the county scene and the triumvirate of Josh Hazlewood and Mitchells Starc and Johnson is the obvious factor separating Bairstow’s results at first-class and Test level.

Like the Black Caps before them, Australia’s pace attack quickly exploited the flaws in the technique of Bairstow’s Yorkshire teammate, Gary Ballance.

Whether they can do likewise with England’s new No.5, or whether the most in-form Englishman in the country can prosper, shapes as one of the most intriguing battles ahead of the crucial third Test.

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