Cook backing for 'unrecognisable' Bairstow

Alastair Cook has described Jonny Bairstow's batting as having "improved unrecognisably" from his last experience of international cricket. The recall for Bairstow may not be the only change to England's side for the third Investec Ashes Test as Mark Wood has failed to fully shake his ankle injury, with Steven Finn primed to replace him when a last-minute decision is made on Wednesday morning.

Bairstow will bat at No. 5 in a reshuffled middle order after replacing his Yorkshire colleague Gary Ballance, having averaged 108.88, including five centuries, in the Championship this season. He also scored a series-sealing 83 not out in the final ODI against New Zealand in June.

"Jonny couldn't be in a better place," Cook said. "I guess that's what happens when you're averaging 100. I haven't seen him play for Yorkshire but I did when he toured the Caribbean with us and played for St Kitts in a mixed warm-up and got a brilliant 90.

"His game has improved unrecognisably from where he was before. Players are allowed to improve, but we have to remember that he got a really good 90 and 50 against a good pace attack against South Africa in 2012.

"Jonny's knocked the door down with his weight of runs for Yorkshire in Division One, they're top of the league and he's still averaging over 100 which is fantastic cricket at any level. He's raring to go."

Six of Bairstow's 14 Tests have come in the Ashes, the final two as a wicketkeeper amid the wreckage of the disastrous tour of 2013-14, and his record against Australia is underwhelming, averaging just 22.90 with a single half-century. Bairstow never struggled for starts - only in his last Test innings, a duck as England were bowled out inside 32 overs in Sydney, did he fail to reach double figures against the Australians - although a pair of technical kinks prevented him kicking on and scoring the weight of rapid runs those innings against South Africa promised.

When Bairstow first played Test cricket, against West Indies earlier in the summer of 2012, he struggled against short-pitched bowling, while in the 2013 Ashes Australia exploited a weakness against full, straight bowling, which he tended to play around.

Technically, Australia will encounter a changed batsman. This season, having been left utterly to his own devices by Yorkshire coach Jason Gillespie, he has a higher backlift, reminiscent of Graham Gooch, that means he is quicker to attack the short ball and plays full bowling with a straighter bat. It has certainly reaped rewards at county level, and the sight of him hooking compulsively in the Edgbaston nets on Monday suggests it is a method he will persist with in Test cricket, even if Mitchells Johnson and Starc pose a rather different threat to anything lurking in the shires.

In manner as well as technique, Bairstow has matured, his dealings with the press less forced, and he carries the demeanour of a young man - for, at 25, that is very much what he remains, even if 15 cricketers have debuted for England since he made his bow - much more at ease with himself.

Doubts remain over Wood's fitness. He passed a fitness test on Monday morning and bowled at full tilt in the nets that afternoon, but heavy rain in Birmingham on Tuesday meant England's bowlers remained indoors, with a decision set to be made on the morning of the Test. Cook confirmed that if Wood failed to pull through that it would be the pace of Finn, not the legspin of Adil Rashid, that England plump for. Cook also said that Moeen Ali was over the side strain that left him a doubt for Lord's, making a Test debut for Rashid even less likely.

"I'll say with the forecast around, it's not the heatwave people have talked about, it will be Finny. Considering Wood's past record, he's played a huge amount of cricket over the last six or seven months, compared to what he has done for Durham. We've got to be careful and we'll make that call in the morning. Finny has bowled really well for Middlesex and in the one-dayers so whichever way we go, whoever gets the nod is the lucky one."

Finn, like Bairstow, is an improved cricketer since Australia last encountered him at Test level, in the opening match of the 2013 series at Trent Bridge. Finn has battled with his run-up, pace and belief and was famously labeled "unselectable" by then coach Ashley Giles during the ODI series that followed the 2013-14 whitewash.

Finn, according to those who know him best at Middlesex, is bowling as well as he ever has. His pace, rhythm and consistency has been improving throughout the season and he bowled a spectacular spell, full of hostility, to take 4 for 41 against Somerset at Merchant Taylor's School a fortnight ago. Both Somerset's openers were struck on the arm and Michael Bates was hit on the helmet later in the innings. If both men play, Finn's former Middlesex captain Chris Rogers - recovering from a dizzy spell suffered at Lord's - can expect bowling of similarly awkward length.