Jonny Bairstow says he won’t be neglecting his wicketkeeping as he aims to cement a place in the Yorkshire side.

It seems likely in the short term that Bairstow will play as a batsman only in the county’s first team due to the presence of the more experienced South African Gerard Brophy.

The 20-year-old impressed with the willow in his breakthrough season last summer, and expectations are high again.

But he has kept wicket in four out of the five matches on Yorkshire’s pre-season tour of Barbados due to Brophy’s ankle injury, and has looked neat and tidy. Bairstow said: “Hopefully I can try to keep improving my keeping as well as my batting this year.

“I’ve been working really hard over the winter with that. I went out to South Africa and worked really hard with Bruce French over there. I pretty much spent four weeks solid on my wicketkeeping.”

Bairstow, who scored 61 earlier this week in Yorkshire’s one-day defeat against Essex in Barbados, notched six half-centuries in 592 County Champion-ship runs last summer. His top score of 84 came against Nottinghamshire at Scarborough.

He continued: “I just want to try and pick up from where I left off last season. I want to establish myself to try and play as much first-team cricket as possible.

“I’m really pleased with how things are going at the moment. I can’t complain at all. I seem to be striking the ball quite well, and my confidence is pretty high.”

It is unclear whether Bairstow will play in the two-day friendly match against Lancashire at the 3 Ws Oval tomorrow. If he does, he is unlikely to keep because Brophy is fit again and will need more match practice.

The only match Brophy has played was the 40-over win against the University of the West Indies on Tuesday.

Despite Yorkshire struggling for form against the white ball, they dominated their two-day friendly against Derbyshire last week.

A repeat performance would be just the tonic in their final friendly before the start of the County Championship against Warwickshire on April 9.

Follow Yorkshire’s tour on Twitter at: twitter.com/tykestravels