"Absolutely unbelievable" Jonny Bairstow backed to continue stunning England Test form

Jonny Bairstow has enjoyed a magnificent summer so far, striking four brilliant Test match hundreds for England in stunning wins over New Zealand and India.

Bairstow came straight into Test cricket off the back of an IPL campaign for Punjab Kings and, after a few low scores, struck a match winning 136 in the second Test against New Zealand at Trent Bridge.

He followed it up with 162 and an unbeaten 71 in the win at Headingley and then notched a pair of brilliant hundreds against India in a record-breaking victory at Edgbaston. England opener Alex Lees has hailed Bairstow's exploits as "absolutely unbelievable".

The pair are close friends, having come through Yorkshire's academy together, and Bairstow delivered an emotional speech when asked to present Lees with his England cap in March.

"He's an experienced cricketer," Lees told Mirror Sport as he took part in a media net session with Durham Cricket partners, Vertu Motors.

"I think the obvious thing watching him this summer and knowing Jonny for quite a long period of time now is he's just been given the freedom to go out and express himself and just trust his natural instincts as a batter.

"And he's been absolutely demolishing high quality attacks. He's an absolutely unbelievable player and he's a match winner but also he's a very smart cricketer.

"Everybody will look at his strike rate over the summer and how he's been whacking it and taking bowling attacks down, but he's shown some real good resilience and some good batsmanship.

"In the India Test I think he was 19 off 67 balls, but because he is such a good player he can catch up very quickly. I've loved watching him bat, he's been incredible this summer and hopefully it will continue long into the rest of