AUSTRALIA legend Adam Gilchrist has echoed Jason Gillespie's recent comments suggesting Jonny Bairstow should hold on to his place as Test wicketkeeper for England.

Yorkshire coach Gillespie has not hidden his view that Bradford-born Bairstow's game would be best served by doing both jobs – keeping and batting.

There are many who feel that Bairstow's ongoing run of form with the bat has opened up the possibility that he could play as a specialist batsman, allowing Jos Buttler to return to the Test side with the gloves.

That discussion was ignited on social media yet again today when Bairstow, after completing a scintillating 167 not out in the third Test against Sri Lanka at Lord's, dropped Dimuth Karunaratne off Chris Woakes.

But Gillespie is dead against such a move from the England selectors and last month said the 26-year-old could one day go down as "one of England's greats behind the stumps".

Earlier this week, in a newspaper column, he added: "Taking the gloves away from Jonny would be the silliest thing the selectors could do.

"Jonny Bairstow can do the same job for England that Adam Gilchrist did for Australia over so many years, without a doubt. Why not?"

Since the start of the English domestic season in April, Bairstow has scored three hundreds and one double hundred in nine first-class innings for both Yorkshire and England, averaging 111.

Gilchrist admitted: "Bairstow's clearly more settled as a batsman when he's wicketkeeping and it's certainly a situation I can relate to.

"To play just as a batsman, you can often feel a little bit half there, half not. Whereas if you're focused on your wicketkeeping, your batting can relax. I suspect that's the case with Bairstow.

"He could make that position, which has been a bit of a revolving door for England, his own for a while to come. He looks like a busy cricketer; a great team man.

"It's no coincidence that a number of Yorkshire players have come out of that team where clearly there's a great environment led by Jason Gillespie where they're real team men because 'Dizzy' was one of the greatest."

Meanwhile, Yorkshire's NatWest T20 Blast clash with Birmingham Bears at Edgbaston tonight was washed out without a ball bowled.

It means the Vikings' hopes of advancing to the quarter-finals are already hanging by a thread with three defeats from their first four matches.

They still have ten fixtures remaining and are likely to need at least seven wins to claim a place in the top four.

A toss took place last night, which Alex Lees won and elected to bowl. Left-arm spinner Karl Carver was selected for his maiden first-team appearance of the season in place of seamer Ben Coad.

But New Zealand captain Kane Williamson will have to wait for his first appearance of the summer. That should come against Derbyshire Falcons at Chesterfield in the Royal London Cup one-day fixture on Sunday, starting at 11am.

The Vikings lost their first match in that competition against Worcestershire at Headingley on Tuesday. It is the first of three 50-over fixtures in four days for the White Rose side.