Jacques Rudolph has backed York starlet Jonny Bairstow to play for England within three years.

South African Rudolph, with a wealth of international experience under his belt, has seen enough of the 20-year-old to suggest that he will be giving Matt Prior and Craig Kieswetter a run for their money.

Former Dunnington wicketkeeper Bairstow has excelled against both the red and white balls at times this season, especially with the bat in the LV= County Championship.

He has played match winning innings in both four-day wins against Warwickshire, while he threatened to do something similar with a half-century in a final day run chase against Essex at Chelmsford last Friday.

Only last week, former White Rose wicketkeeper Simon Guy said Bairstow had talent and potential “coming out of his ear holes”.

Rudolph agrees, saying: “The way he is hitting the ball at the moment is unbelievable. He is definitely someone for the future, and I reckon in two or three years he will be playing for England.

“He is an impact player and he wins you games. We have seen it in a lot of games this season that he comes in and hits 50 or 60 very quickly to win us a game.

“This is only his first full season, remember, so he is definitely an England possibility for the future. He is also a wicketkeeper, and ’keepers in England are normally in and out of the team a lot.

“He is a massive talent and, hopefully, he will get into the England team.”

Bairstow has scored 608 runs from 11 Championship matches, including five 50s. He scored 219 runs from 15 Twenty20 matches, but has not batted yet in the CB40.

Bairstow was selected ahead of Gerard Brophy – it was his first match of the competition – for Sunday’s return to Clydesdale Bank 40 action, a thumping eight-wicket success over Middlesex at Lord’s.

Rudolph was the one who played the innings of substance on this occasion, an unbeaten 86 off 115 balls, as the Tykes completed their fifth win out of five to go one point clear off Essex at the top of Group ‘B’ with a game in hand.

The left-hander has passed 50 four times in the competition already, and he is only 21 runs short of 400 runs ahead of his side’s trip to Bristol on Thursday to take on Gloucestershire.

He says the fact that 40-over cricket gives you more time to build an innings has helped him, rather than having to go at anything and everything in the Twenty20 arena.

“It’s been going really well for me in 40-over cricket this season,” he said. “It is longer than Twenty20 cricket, so you can build an innings better. There is not the constant pressure to score runs. My stats have been pretty good, and I just want to continue playing well.”

As Yorkshire continue their CB40 campaign, following Gloucester with a trip to the Netherlands on Sunday, Championship rivals Nottinghamshire, Lancashire and Somerset play one of their two games.

Rudolph added: “As a team we are still in a very good position to win the Championship and the CB40, so our minds are set on both.”

Andrew Flintoff could make his latest comeback from injury for Lancashire seconds against the Tykes at Crosby next week, more likely the one-day game on Monday.