Joe Root has backed Yorkshire and Lions team-mate Jonny Bairstow to bounce back from the disappointment of being left out of the England teams for their most recent Test and one-day international series.

Bairstow, the York-based star, was dropped for the ongoing Test series against South Africa after scoring only 38 runs in three appearances against the West Indies earlier in the summer.

And despite being in the squad for one-day series against the Windies and Australia, he did not play a match.

He returned to Yorkshire colours after featuring in a Twenty20 international against the men from the Caribbean in late June to post a top score of only 27 in six innings in all forms.

The wicketkeeper-batsman then returned to form with an excellent 118 in an LV= County Championship match against Leicestershire at Grace Road late last month.

Bairstow also hit 139 in the England Lions’ second innings against Australia ‘A’ yesterday.

Of Bairstow’s barren run, Root said: “I think it was the first time Jonny’s not really succeeded.

“He’s scored a lot of runs consistently thoughout his first-class career till now, and I think he’ll continue to do so. I hope he takes this experience and learns from it.

“When he gets another chance with England, he’ll come back a stronger player for it.

“I felt a bit sorry for Jonny because he had a rough time coming back in the t20s for Yorkshire, but he worked really hard.

“Good on him for getting that hundred at Leicester. It went into the background a bit with Adam Lyth getting a double hundred, but you’ve got to give Jonny a lot of credit. He played really well, and I’m expecting him to do great things in the next few weeks.”