IPL great opportunity to play at different grounds before the WC: Jonny Bairstow

Jonny Bairstow. Pic/AFP

England batsman Jonny Bairstow said that playing in the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League will be a "great opportunity" to get familiar with the conditions ahead of the T20 World Cup scheduled to be played in India later this year.

"It will be a great opportunity to play at different grounds that we could potentially be playing in the T20 World Cup. Also to see how different teams will go about bowling in those conditions," Bairstow said in a virtual press conference on Wednesday.

"Because, naturally with the dimension of the grounds and also wickets, it varies how attacks go about defending totals and batsmen go about setting them, so it will be an interesting competition," he added.

He further talked about the chemistry with his opening partner Jason Roy and said that they talk about very simple things in the middle.

"We are fortunate to have a very strong squad and the squad which people wanted to be a part of. It's easy chemistry, there are no great shakes to it. We talk about very simple things out in the middle and keep it very simple. It's not as if we're talking about 'OK, I'm taking him' or anything like that, it's a go with how the game pans out approach," he said.

"If you look at yesterday and I think I was nine of 18 and I end up getting 90-odd off 60. Yesterday was a fairly slow start, the way that Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled at us didn't allow us to get off to that fast start. However, we caught it up," the right-handed batsman added.

Talking about life in a bio-secure bubble, Bairstow said: "It is very difficult ... from January 2nd till now it has been just 10 days that I was home. In September when we went into the bubble at Manchester, up until Christmas, obviously there were a couple of weeks off till January.

"So it is tough being away and people are going to need rest. It is not easy just turning up and playing cricket. Living at a certain floor of the hotel, not able to leave the hotel ... being away from families is tough and the break that people are getting through the winter has been important for people's mental and physical health."

England's rotation policy saw Bairstow being rested for the first two Tests against India, something which was criticised by some former players.

"We all know the amount of cricket that is coming up, we are only 7 months away from World Cup and back of that is Ashes and then West Indies tour next winter, and that's without mentioning anything about English summer, so it is not easy thing scheduling when people will need slight break," he added.

India and England will now lock horns in the second ODI on Friday.

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