Jonny Bairstow has been named as the Cricket Writers’ Club’s Young Player of the Year.

The 21-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman from York received nearly double the votes of runner-up Chris Woakes and he picked up his award at yesterday’s 65th anniversary dinner at Lord’s.

It comes hot on the heels of his stunning one-day debut for England against India at Cardiff on Friday night, where he sealed a home win with 41 not out off 21 balls.

He is the ninth Yorkshire player to receive the award, the most recent of those being current team-mate Adil Rashid in 2007.

Bairstow gained high praise for his innings at Cardiff, most notably from England captain Alastair Cook and team director Andy Flower. He was presented with his cap before the match by Geoff Boycott.

“I was really pleased to get the call from Andy Flower. I didn’t know he was actually going to play,” said Boycott, who was a close friend of Jonny’s late father, David.

“I told him that I was thrilled for him and that if his dad was here, he’d be thrilled for him too.”

Boycott was speaking on BBC’s Test Match Special programme. He added: “I knew his dad well.

“His dad was one of those ebullient sort of players who you want in your team.

“He lifted the players in the team, and Jonny’s got some of his dad’s genes in that sort of way. He’s a pretty up guy who doesn’t get down very easily. He’s very challenging and likes to win.

“He’s very talented, and I really believe that he’s a better player than his dad. He’s got the same sort of attitude. He’s only ever interested in winning. He’s very competitive.

“I saw him from an early age, and he can definitely play. He’s very fit, he wins a lot of the exercises they do in pre-season training.

“Although he wants to wicketkeep and bat, he throws himself around in the field too.

“He can hit the ball out of the ground, almost further than anybody else at Yorkshire.

“He can properly bat, a middle order batter. He’s going to be like Matt Prior in a way. He’s going to play in the middle to late order. If he gets in, he’ll take the game away from you. Jonny can play whichever way you want. He can bat properly or he can whack it.”

The former St Peter’s School pupil has a fine sporting pedigree having played age group football for Leeds United as well as rugby and even hockey.

But Boycott admitted that he took some persuading to give them up and concentrate on cricket.

He explained: “His mum was worrying that he was playing rugby, soccer, cricket, everything you’d expect of a young man who’s talented.

“So I said to him ‘look, at some stage you’re going to have to make a decision. You can’t go on with three sports’.

“Nowadays it’s got so professional, all the sports have, and they go on for so long. Football does, rugby, cricket does. The days of Denis Compton being able to play football and cricket, I’m sorry, they’ve gone.

“It wasn’t for me to tell him what to play, it was for him to decide. He decided to give up football, then he gave them both up for cricket.”

Bairstow, who will celebrate his 22nd birthday on Monday, is in the squad for the Twenty20 international double header against the West Indies at the Oval on Friday and Sunday.