Stars land England World Cup winner Bairstow

The influx of English stars to this summer's KFC BBL has continued with the Melbourne Stars confirming the arrival of Jonny Bairstow.

Bairstow becomes the tenth Englishman and 15th international to commit for BBL|10, although he is expected to miss the opening few weeks of the tournament due to quarantine requirements following England's tour of South Africa.

He joins his England opening partner Jason Roy (who has signed for the Perth Scorchers) in the BBL, who together are arguably the most destructive opening pair in international white-ball cricket.

The prospect of Bairstow opening with Marcus Stoinis for the Stars this season will put their BBL rivals on notice.

The Stars used Nic Maddinson, Hilton Cartwright and Seb Gotch as openers last summer alongside Stoinis, who finished the tournament as the leading run-scorer.

That trio are all locked in again for BBL|10, but Bairstow is one of the most damaging openers in world cricket and the prospect of him and Stoinis getting the side off to a blazing start will be hard for head coach David Hussey to ignore.

With Glenn Maxwell to skipper the side again, Bairstow's arrival eases the loss of foundation player Peter Handscomb, who has joined the Hurricanes.

The Stars will also be hoping Maddinson can transfer his prolific first-class form into the BBL arena after a couple of lean summers, while they will also look to Ben Dunk – twice the competition's leading run-scorer – to return to his best.

"I've always watched the BBL no matter where I've been in the world and it will be nice to finally be a part of it," Bairstow said.

"The list is looking good and I can't wait to get involved alongside Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis and Adam Zampa who I’ve been playing against during the IPL."

Bairstow won't be available until after Christmas due to England's tour of South Africa, which finishes of December 9, the day before the BBL's opening game of the season.

Given all international visitors to Australia are required to complete two weeks of mandatory quarantine upon their arrival, up to eight members of the BBL's English contingent – including Bairstow – will miss at least their team's first three games of the tournament.

Bairstow, Roy, Liam Livingstone, Tom Banton, Lewis Gregory, Tom Curran, Sam Billings and Dawid Malan have all been picked in England's squad to tour South Africa, with clubs looking to sign a host of young English players to step in until the big-name English signings are out of quarantine.

Fellow Englishmen Alex Hales (Sydney Thunder) and James Vince (Sydney Sixers) have not been picked for the South African tour so they should be available for the whole tournament.

Bairstow, who has partnered Australian David Warner at the top of the order for the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL, has nearly 3000 T20 runs to his name in more than 130 games with a strike rate north of 134.

He was particularly prolific in last year's IPL, averaging 55.62, hitting one century and striking at 157.24 in 10 matches. But his numbers were down on that effort in the 2020 tournament currently being played in the UAE and he was recently dropped from the side as the Sunrisers' made a late charge into the finals but fell to Stoinis's Delhi side last night.

The right-hander has recently fallen out of favour of England's Test set-up and was given a white-ball only central contract for 2020-21, meaning he's unlikely to be required for Test series' against Sri Lanka and India in the New Year. 

Bairstow is the third player move for the Melbourne Stars this summer after they traded Daniel Worrall to the Adelaide Strikers for towering paceman Billy Stanlake, while young batting gun Will Pucovski has also signed on, although his prolific form in the Marsh Sheffield Shield could see him spend time in Australia's Test bubble this summer.

The Stars have also been linked with a return for Pakistan pace ace Haris Rauf, although that has yet to be confirmed.

Melbourne Stars BBL|10 squad (so far): Jonny Bairstow (ENG), Hilton Cartwright, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Ben Dunk, Seb Gotch, Clint Hinchliffe, Nic Maddinson, Glenn Maxwell (c), Lance Morris, Tom O'Connell, Will Pucovski, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa.