Bairstow ton sends England clarion call

They've got to pick Jonny now. The assertion rung around Scarborough, every bit as adamant as Yorkshire assertions tend to be. It spilled out from North Marine Road and spread into the tea rooms, the fish and chip shops and down into North Bay where a sprinkling of hardy souls walked the beach wrapped up against a chill wind.

They've got to pick Jonny now. In roughly the time it took for Australia to dismiss England a second time, Jonny Bairstow struck a hundred against Worcestershire so ringing in its authority, so emphatic in its statement that he is England's in-form batsman, and a classy one to boot, that it surely can be ignored no longer.

It is not picking Bairstow that will worry England's selectors, it is the knock-on effects that it will cause. Once you have brought him in at No. 5 what do you do then? In the North Riding pub, across the road from the ground, the options were wisely debated.

Nevertheless, forget the happy one-day comeback against New Zealand at Chester-le-Street: it is time to pitch him into the Ashes fray. The only debate is who he comes in for. "Any number lad," said one wind-battered observer of the Yorkshire cricketing scene. "Any number." Several of them Yorkshiremen. Not that this fact is easily dealt with.

By the time England succumbed for 103 at Lord's, a pitiful defeat by 405 runs duly logged, Bairstow already had made more runs on his own. Clearly, it was not the pressure of a Lord's Test against Mitchell Johnson and co, it was a seaside stroll against a wholehearted Worcestershire attack, but the figures stack up.

As he made 139, from 183 balls with 18 fours and a six, en route he passed James Hildreth as the leading run-scorer in Division One. His 906 runs have come at an average of 100.66. In his last 12 innings, he has one double-century, four centuries and four fifties. "And a duck," someone said, because perfection in these parts is frowned on. He fell shortly before six o'clock, cutting Brett D'Oliveira's legspin to Tom Fell at backward point. "A stupid shot," he said.

But do not be too harsh on England. That entreaty comes from Bairstow himself. Asked if he though he would now get England recognition, he responded that faith and loyalty should now be paramount: "It is a time to get behind the lads. Only a week ago the fans were getting right behind them at Cardiff and they can be very fickle. They should now be getting behind the boys at Edgbaston and it would be wrong as a nation not to do so."

He reached his century by taking 14 off one over from Joe Leach. His first boundary was a rare hazardous moment as he drove between the stumps and mid-off at catchable height. He followed that up with a clip to midwicket - at the same time, replays of Jos Buttler's dismissal were being studied in the press box - and an off drive to 98 and then a scampered two for a dab to third man.

It was quite a hundred, from only 112 balls, with not a hint of excess, and it was quite a celebration as he ran halfway towards the sightscreen, looked briefly to the heavens, and flung his arms aloft. Yorkshire are 24 points clear in the Championship with a game in hand and, with six games remaining, a win here will strengthen their chances of retaining their title but this was not the celebration of a Championship century. It was a reaffirmation of his England credentials. Edgbaston a week on Wednesday must be on his mind.

He came in at 57 for 3 - a score resonant of England's recent fortunes - after Yorkshire's top order had succumbed to Leach, who ran downwind to draw weak edges to slip from Alex Lees and Will Rhodes and then switched into the strong breeze to have Jack Leaning lbw. Strong willed, equally strong of midriff, and with hair thinning at 24, he has an old-fashioned flavour.

Before too long, Bairstow's innings provided a counterpoint to the horrors emerging at Lord's. He was lunching contentedly when Adam Lyth became the first England wicket to fall - no "Peanut" allergy reported here, unlike Lord's - he twice cut Jack Shantry to the rope to reach his 50 as Gary Ballance failed again and drove Leach through the covers - one of his serenest boundaries - just as Ben Stokes suffered a mindless run out.

Bairstow's fourth-wicket stand of 254 in 58 overs came in league with another century maker, Andrew Gale, who Scarborough regards like a favourite son: five Championship hundreds here now, including a career-best 272 against Nottinghamshire. On this occasion, it barely registered.

It was a record stand for Yorkshire against Worcestershire, dislodging two Yorkshire coaches, Maurice Leyland and Arthur Mitchell, at Worcester in 1933, from the record books. They got there with Bairstow's only blemish as, on 126, he drove Jack Shantry through the hands of Brett D'Oliveira at short extra cover. Leyland would have looked pleasurably upon this Bairstow innings; even Mitchell might have curled his mouth in the general direction of a smile.

Don Wilson, a former Yorkshire and England left-arm spinner, told a tale of his first experience of Mitchell in the Headingley nets. Petrified, he was bowled three times in no time. "For an apprentice joiner, lad, tha certainly meks a mess of the woodwork," Mitchell said.

Can Australia make a mess of Bairstow's woodwork? Perhaps we are about to find out.