wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow suffered a small fracture on the middle finger on his left hand when a James Anderson delivery swung late to hurt him in the 44th over, during the first session of play on Day 3 of the Trent Bridge Test. Bairstow had to shed his 'keeping gloves immediately to undergo an X-Ray, reports of which confirmed the fracture.

This meant that England's limited overs wicketkeeper Jos Buttler was given the responsibilities which he performed pretty well. If Bairstow is fit for the fourth Test, he will solely play as a specialist batsman and will bat at number 4. England coach Trevor Bayliss said that Bairstow wouldn't mind giving up the role for the team's sake and don up his new role. 

"That'll be the hard thing, trying to convince Jonny," said Bayliss. "That will be a decision that is taken from the team point of view. He is a world-class batter, we know that, one of the difficult things might be convincing Jonny of that."

"I think he has improved his 'keeping over the last couple of years from where he was say when we were in South Africa. He's aware of that. He's done some hard work. Jos will have to do some hard work as well. He's been keeping a lot in one-day cricket but keeping 100 overs-a-day can be difficult, day after day, Test after Test. There are other options out there as well."

Another important factor in his case will be his state of mind post the injury. Since it's a finger injury it might affect both his batting and keeping. However his coach Trevor Bayliss doesn't think so. 

"It would certainly be a deep conversation with someone like that. Jonny's a reasonable bloke. If that's the way we wanted to go... in the long run, he wants to play Test cricket. We know he wants to keep but there would be a lot of explaining and chatting" said Bayliss. 

(Inputs from Cricbuzz)