Jonny Bairstow reaffirmed his commitment to playing all formats for England in the wake of Ben Stokes' retirement from One-Day International cricket.
Stokes played his last ODI in England's loss to South Africa at Chester-le-Street on Tuesday, pointing to the punishing schedule that has England currently playing 12 limited-overs matches in 24 days in a cluster of fixtures squeezed in between the Test against India and the start of The Hundred.
Bairstow is one of a diminishing number of all-format international players and he may well be the only male England player to appear in all formats over the next year and beyond.
"I don't know if it's good or bad that I'm one of the last all-format players but naturally there are challenges, we've seen that over a period of time now," Bairstow told Sky Sports on Friday.
"We only had to look at the Test series this year when the one-day squad were over in Holland at the same time.
"And look at the back end of this summer and the T20s in Pakistan pretty much overlap with the last Test. There are challenges with it.
"But you know me well enough now. I'll be trying to play all of them for as long as possible. I'll be going all out for as long as I can. There might come a time when you do have to make a decision for different reasons, but that's part and parcel of life and cricket.
"But in the near future, I can't see me making a choice because I'm loving being part of all three squads.
"They're all individual squads and they're great to be a part of. It's exciting. You go into a new one and you've got a freshness and new faces and energy around them because you're going into a new format."
MORE: Joe Root's 'tubthumping' call for England to rally as relentless schedule rolls on
The future of the fifty-over format has been under the spotlight in recent weeks, with Stokes' retirement coming off the back of South Africa's withdrawal from an ODI series against Australia that was due to be played in January, forfeiting points that could put at risk their World Cup qualification.
Cricket South Africa's decision to prioritise the availability for the launch of a new T20 tournament highlights the squeeze that is tightening a schedule increasingly dominated by T20 leagues and ICC tournaments.
As Cricket Australia launched ticket sales for the upcoming summer, which begins with white-ball series against Zimbabwe and New Zealand ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup, Usman Khawaja said he and other players feel the one-day format is slowly dying.
"My own personal opinion — I know a few of the guys are very similar — you've got Test cricket, which is the pinnacle, you've got T20 cricket, which obviously has leagues around the world, great entertainment, everyone loves it, and then there's one-day cricket," said Khawaja.
"I feel like that's probably the third-ranked out of all of them. I think, personally, one-day cricket is dying a slow death. There's still the World Cup, which I think is really fun and it's enjoyable to watch, but other than that, even myself personally, I'm probably not into one-day cricket as much either."
But Bairstow believes the 50-over format is still needed, partly as a bridge between Tests and T20Is.
"I've not seen the future tours programme — that's above my pay grade. Let's leave that to the administrators," Bairstow said. "I think 50-overs is a really good format and the journey we went through to get to the 2019 World Cup was amazing.
"I also think 50-over cricket is a stepping stone to Test cricket because you get worked over for longer and you have to come through difficult periods and play good cricket shots.
"Yes, people have their own opinions and around the world there might not be big crowds, but we're lucky in this country that 50-over cricket is well backed and we loved playing it as a group."
Bairstow was rested from the T20I series against India but he is in the squad for the three T20 matches against South Africa, which follow hot on the heels of the third ODI at Headingley on Sunday.
He is also due to play for Welsh Fire in The Hundred before switching formats once more for England's three-Test series against South Africa, beginning in mid-August, and echoed concerns expressed by Stokes, Jos Buttler and Joe Root about the sustainability of the schedule.
"I don't think we have a choice, do we? The schedule is the schedule," said Bairstow. "It's difficult to say if you want to play less but Stokesey has a point in some ways about the overlapping games that there are.
"There used to be lead-ins to series and training days before games but there are back-to-back games coming up now. They are trying to fit in different things like The Hundred and everything else.
"It's a tricky job for everyone but Ben mentioned a car and re-fuelling, didn't he, which I thought was a good analogy.
"But yes, it does have certain impacts and if you're playing everything at full intensity it will take it out of people."
