On the field, Jonny Bairstow blazed away alongside Ben Stokes to square the series for England in an emphatic fashion in Pune on Friday. Off the field, he hit back at Sunil Gavaskar, who had claimed Bairstow was “uninterested” after his soft dismissal off Ravichandran Ashwin in the second innings of the final Test in Ahmedabad.

“You have not scored a run, and just come in and pushed at it, as if there was no fielder at backward short leg. It looked to me as if it was the shot of a person uninterested.

“What’s he trying to do? First ball, he should be looking to play a soft defensive shot. There is a fielder there at backward short leg. Uninterested,” Gavaskar had commented then.

In response to the legend’s claim, Bairstow, during the post-match virtual media interaction, replied: “First of all, I hadn’t heard what he said. Secondly, I’m interested in knowing how an opinion can be made especially when there has been no correspondence or communication between him (Gavaskar) and me.

“Yeah, he’s more than welcome to give me a ring and ask me about my will to do well in Test cricket and my enjoyment in Test cricket. As I said, my phone is on and if he just wants to give me a call or a message, he can feel free to do so.”

Talking about England’s approach that helped them chase down the daunting 337-run target in just 43.3 overs, the opener said: “It’s about chasing it down as fast as you can. Simple.

“We try and put the bowlers under pressure and make them make mistakes. And that’s the way we go about it.”

India captain Virat Kohli, too, doffed his hat to Bairstow and Stokes for their blazing knocks.

“We didn’t execute too well, but they batted brilliantly. It was some of the most amazing batting you’ll see when chasing. They totally blew us away during that partnership. We didn’t even have a chance during that partnership,” Kohli said at the post-match presentation.