England take solace from Jonny Bairstow's golden form after Scotland shock

Amid the wreckage of a humiliating defeat by Scotland on Sunday, England could at least take solace from the fact that in Jonny Bairstow they now possess arguably the best one-day opener in the world.

Eoin Morgan’s team will hope their sobering loss in Edinburgh against a team ranked 13th in the world is just a blip on their way to achieving their ultimate goal of winning next year’s World Cup.

Bairstow’s form, though, appears anything but a blip after he reeled off his third successive ODI hundred – and fifth since reinventing himself as an opener last summer – at The Grange.

It is less than a year since Bairstow was on the margins of this 50-over side, being parachuted in for ever-more impressive cameos before finally being granted a run at the top of the order in the final series of the 2017 summer against West Indies.

Unbeaten scores of 100 and 141 were followed earlier this year by innings of 138 and 104 in the final two matches of the New Zealand series in Dunedin and Christchurch.

Bairstow’s 105 in Edinburgh, where he reached three figures in just 54 balls to post the third-fastest century for England in ODIs, underlined his quality, power and breadth of range-hitting that make him a serious rival to South Africa’s Quinton De Kock as the best one-day opener in the world.

Bairstow has certainly come a long way since this time last year, when he didn’t even make England’s team for the start of their Champions Trophy campaign.

“It was disappointing not to go on and make a big one against Scotland but at the same time to score three on the bounce is really pleasing considering 12 months ago people were questioning whether or not I should even be playing,” said Bairstow. “So 12 months down the line, to score five hundreds in such a short space of time and three on the bounce, I’m pleased with where it’s gone.

“I’m happy with the way I’m playing up the order. To be starting off up the top and creating those partnerships is pleasing and hopefully we can keep creating platforms for us to keep progressing as a team.”

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For a team who have risen to No1 in the world on the back of nine wins in their past ten series, losing to Scotland was deeply embarrassing.

Yet next for England is the small matter of a five-match series against Australia that starts at The Oval on Wednesday. Bairstow says: “Look, if you get to No 1 then people are going to want to beat you. But you want to be No 1 in the world and that’s where we are.

“Losing to Scotland was bitterly disappointing. There are areas we could have been better but we go forward against Australia and we know the challenges they’re going to pose.”

Those challenges are less than they would have been had Australia not been denied the services of their three best fast bowlers in Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazelwood and Pat Cummins for this series through injury. Former captain Steve Smith and David Warner are also missing thanks to the year-long bans imposed on them for orchestrating the ball-tampering plot in the Cape Town Test against South Africa in March.

England will still be wary, though, especially after Sunday’s defeat in Edinburgh.

“Australia are a completely different challenge and a completely different team,” said Bairstow. “It’s obviously an Australian team that have got a lot of new guys and they’re without Starc, Cummins, Hazelwood, Warner, Smith. But there will be guys who will be competing for places. We know how dangerous that can be.”

If Bairstow continues his golden run of form, and a fourth successive ODI hundred would equal the record held by Sri Lanka great Kumar Sangakkara, then England will be favourites to shake off their Scottish hangover against Australia at The Oval.