Sunrisers Hyderabad opener Jonny Bairstow on Saturday expressed his desire to help the team win the next two games and take few steps closer to making the IPL play-offs before heading back to join England's World Cup camp.
Bairstow will play two more games for the Sunrisers -- against Kolkata Knight Riders here on Sunday and against the defending champions Chennai Super Kings in Chennai on April 23.
After that he will go back home to prepare for the World Cup, beginning May 30 in UK, with the rest of the England ODI squad.
"So far it has gone well. To be in the top five leading run scorers...it is really very pleasing. Hopefully I can finish on a high in the next two games as well and we could be in the position to make the play-offs by the time I leave," said Bairstow during a round table conference here on the eve of the home game against Kolkata Knight Riders.
All the English players featuring in the ongoing IPL are suppose to be back in England.
Currently placed fifth on the highest run-scorer's list in the ongoing IPL, Bairstow's absence will be a big blow for the Sunrisers. In his debut IPL season for the Hyderabad-based franchise, the opener has scored 365 runs so far in eight games at an average of 52.14, including a hundred and a half-century.
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"We get back after the Chennai game on April 23. Then we've got the World Cup camp. We then play Pakistan in the five-ODI series and then we've got two warm-up matches in which we play Afghanistan and Australia. And then we go into the World Cup.
"It's a lot of cricket leading into the World Cup. And then we've got five Ashes Tests after that," Bairstow told reporters.
England's World Cup camp will be followed by a lone ODI against Ireland on May 3 and then the limited overs series against Pakistan, comprising one T20I and five ODIs, commencing May 5.
Asked which team according to him has the best chance of clinching the World Cup title this time, Bairstow said: "Lots of teams who could win it and there would be upsets along the way. West Indies could win a game from nowhere. Then there is Afghanistan, who would probably bowl 30-40 overs of spin.
"In England, you know you do not have pitches like India, which is really dry. Sometimes the pitches could turn in England."
"If you see I had been batting consistently at 6 or 7. I have never batted at no 3 or 4 in first class or Test cricket, so it was a completely different challenge. I am enjoying my cricket to be honest. It has been very refreshing for me to come to a franchise and hopefully this is a starting point for many more years in the IPL."
"However, there is lot more travelling. You travel at strange times as the evening games finish around mid-night. But it is good."