Currently recovering from a broken leg suffered in September, the England batter is now not expected to return until the Indian Premier League in the spring
England are expected to be without Jonny Bairstow for the New Zealand Test series next February, with his 2023 set to be delayed.
The Daily Mail understands the 33-year-old, out with a myriad of injuries including a broken leg since September, may not return until the Indian Premier League, pencilled in to start in late March or early April 2023.
It would also see Bairstow miss the white-ball tours of South Africa in January and Bangladesh in March.
Ben Stokes' side play Tests at Mount Maunganui and Wellington from February 16 and 24.
(Michael Steele/Getty Images)
A talismanic figure amid England's revival in Test cricket under Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum, Bairstow has been sidelined since a freak accident left him with multiple fractures, a dislocated ankle and ligament damage after he slipped at Pannal Golf Club in September.
It ruled him out of the remainder of the year, taking in the third South Africa Test, the Pakistan and Australia white-ball matches, the T20 World Cup and the Pakistan Tests.
His international return may now have to wait until the one-off Test against Ireland at Lord's - a tune-up match ahead of an Ashes rematch against Australia.
Stokes and McCullum will now be without one of the defining figures of their premiership when they face the World Test Championship holders. Bairstow smashed four centuries in six summer Tests during 2022, inspiring victories over the Kiwis, India and South Africa.
Those performances saw him named the England men's Player of the Year by the Cricketer Writers' Club and the Men's Player of the Year and LV= Insurance Test player of the summer prizes at the PCA Awards.
The delay to Bairstow's return does at least put back the decision facing England over the composition of their Test XI in 2023.
Replacement Harry Brook has reeled off centuries in all three Pakistan Tests, surpassing David Gower as England's highest scorer in a series away to the Men in Green, and can be expected to retain his place in the short term.
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