Defiant, bristling Jonny Bairstow batters the Aussies in fourth Ashes Test as he hits an unbeaten 99 to help put England in the driving seat

Jonny Bairstow couldn’t resist a glance — or was it glare? — in the direction of the media centre. It was the look English cricket had been waiting for: the defiance of a man who has just disproved the doubters, real and imagined.

Bairstow didn’t seem too fussed to have become the first England player in 24 years to finish stranded on 99 not out.

It mattered only that he had rejoined the Ashes party for the first time since his opening-day 78 at Edgbaston.

His one-handed catch of Mitchell Marsh on the first evening here had been the first sign he was perking up. But not until he started swatting sixes after lunch on Friday did he display the ‘Jonny eyes’ noticed by Ben Stokes during his dismantling of New Zealand at Trent Bridge last summer.

One shot in particular — a pick-up off Pat Cummins that had spectators craning their necks at deep midwicket – seemed to unleash the frustration of the past few matches. Peering through the window of the dressing-room, Ben Stokes followed its path with open-mouthed astonishment.

Jonny Bairstow couldn’t resist a glance at the media centre as he left the field on day three of the fourth Ashes Test at Old Trafford

The batter played like he had a point to prove, smashing his way to an unbeaten 99 in England’s first innings

He pulled off a spectacular catch on day one, which seemed to galvanise him following criticism of his wicketkeeping

Like all his team-mates, Stokes has been working hard this week to help Bairstow rediscover the X-factor that a year ago made him Bazball’s first golden boy.

Generally, this means putting an arm round his shoulder, inflating his tyres, telling him he’s loved. And he really is, despite his foibles — and partly because of them.

But things have not been easy ever since he missed a couple of chances behind the stumps on the second day at Edgbaston, instantly reigniting the debate about the wisdom of dropping Ben Foakes.

Then came Lord’s and the Alex Carey stumping that divided two nations. To the English, Bairstow was a Spirit of Cricket martyr, to the Australians a dozy sod. What he wasn’t was a wicketkeeper-batsman at the height of his powers.

More scrappiness followed on his home ground at Headingley, where he took his sequence with his bat since the series’ opening day to 20, 16, 10, 12 and five.

Yet it was around now that his and Carey’s fortunes began first to converge, then to head in different directions.

At Headingley, Carey was reminded by boozy spectators of his Lord’s deed at every turn, clonked on the head by Mark Wood, and dismissed for eight and five. The furore seemed to have got to him.

On Friday, he fluffed a chance to run out Stokes, before being sent this way and that by Australia’s misfiring seamers. Not all the 15 byes were his fault, but there was a scruffiness he was powerless to stop.

Bairstow was at the heart of the mayhem. At lunch, with England eight down and 189 ahead, he had 41. Could he become the sixth half-centurion of the innings? He could, with a short-arm jab for six off Mitchell Starc — the shot, above all others, that says Bairstow is on it.

Josh Hazlewood was uppercut and clipped for a pair of fours, Cummins swatted for another; Hazlewood was pulled for one six, Cummins for two. When the 50 stand came up for the last wicket, Jimmy Anderson’s share was five.

Australia wicketkeeper Alex Carey, who controversially ran out Bairstow in the second Test, has had a hard time of things since

Bairstow was denied another century only by running out of partners, with James Anderson lbw and the last man out

It was all happening. Bairstow pinched byes to farm the strike, and was grateful Carey’s aim was less sure than that day at Lord’s.

Then, on 98, he thought better of a second off Cameron Green, leaving Anderson with three balls to negotiate. He was immediately lbw.

Bairstow received the Australians’ congratulations and commiserations, and thundered off towards the dressing-room.

And then he peered upwards, just in case the critics hadn’t been paying attention.