Yorkshire director of professional cricket Martyn Moxon believes Jonny Bairstow is close to cementing his Test place.

Bairstow flew out to Australia last night with the England squad for the defence of the Ashes but did so having missed out on one of the 11 central contracts awarded by the ECB on Tuesday.

Although not being centrally contracted does not affect his England chances one bit, it is an indicator that things have not quite gone as well in international cricket as the 24-year-old would have hoped for.

The Bradford-born player has not yet stamped his authority on Test cricket in the 12 matches he has played since debuting in May of last year and has only played seven one-day internationals since September 2011.

He also missed out on the most recent summer’s Twenty20 internationals against New Zealand and Australia. But Moxon insisted: “All he needs is a good innings and he’ll be away.

“Things haven’t quite worked out for him. He didn’t play that much in India last winter and played a little bit more in New Zealand. When he did play, it was when not having played for a while. That’s not easy.

“I’m still absolutely convinced that Jonny’s got a big future ahead of him. I’m sure his time will come and hopefully he will get his chance this winter.”

The smart money would be on Bairstow getting first crack at the number six spot in the team for next month’s first Test at Brisbane. If that happens, it will mean disappointment for county colleague Gary Ballance.

“There’s nothing we can do about it so whoever gets picked, hopefully they’ll do well,” said Moxon.

With Joe Root and Tim Bresnan awarded two of the central contracts, it means Yorkshire can now plan to be without them for the vast majority of next summer.

But a lot depends on how well Bairstow does this winter as to how much the county will see of him.

Moxon also admitted: “From a financial point of view, it would have been good to have had all three centrally contracted.”