Jonny Bairstow hasn't given up hopes of regaining his spot in England's Test side, says it remains a "burning ambition" to be able to wear the traditional whites again.
Bairstow, who has been overlooked in Test matches since the last winter's tour of South Africa, however, realises the only way back is to keep scoring runs in England's white-ball fixtures and when he gets to play for Yorkshire at the domestic level.
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"[A Test recall] is my burning ambition but the only way I'm going to do that is to score runs, starting in this ODI series, [and] to keep well," he told Sky Sports after scoring a brilliant 41-ball 82 in England's second ODI victory against Ireland.
"I'm hopefully going back to Yorkshire to play two four-day games in between this and the T20s. So yeah, the journey to hopefully get back into contention for that starts here," added Bairstow.
The successive win not only sealed the ongoing series 2-0 with a game to spare but also added 10 more points in England's kitty as far as the ICC ODI Super League is concerned.
During his innings on Saturday (August 1), Bairstow also became the latest to make 3,000 or more ODI runs for England, reaching there in his 79th game, averaging 46.98 at a strike-rate of 105.69.
The 30-year-old wishes to keep performing the same way and help England retain its world champions tag at the 2023 World Cup in India.
"We try and reach 4,000, we try and reach even more than that, as long as you’re contributing to the team and playing the way we have been over the last few years," he said.
"We’re striving to keep pushing those boundaries forward to 2023. That’s my next bit - I want to be there in 2023 and really pushing and see if we can retain it," Bairstow concluded.
(Inputs from Reuters)
