Jonny Bairstow's remarkable red-ball resurgence has been one of the cricketing stories of a sizzling sporting summer.

And with the football season about to enter full swing ahead of Norwich City's Championship opener at Cardiff, a player in yellow and green with a similar recent history can now harness the spirit of the middle-order dasher to get his career back on track.

Bairstow's turbulent tale has been well-documented over recent weeks.

The wicket-keeper batsman, 32, has functioned as something of an expendable cricketing commodity since his Test debut in 2012, batting in every position from three to seven and having the gloves ruthlessly ripped away from him under the previous regime.

That behind-the-scenes chaos - that manifested itself in England's terrible run of results - inhibited Bairstow as a batsman but now, in Brendon McCullum's new-look 'BazBall' era, Bairstow looks laser-focused on finishing his career in style.

England's No.6 has racked up a rampant six hundreds in eight Tests, almost single-handedly steering his side to that historic win against India at Edgbaston with a fearless pair of centuries.

Bairstow has been put through the cricketing wringer by a sustained barrage of managerial incompetence but liberated by McCullum and new captain Ben Stokes, has reinvented himself as one of the most dangerous, in-form players on the planet.

The Pink Un: Happy days ahead at Norwich City for Todd Cantwell?Happy days ahead at Norwich City for Todd Cantwell? (Image: ©Focus Images Limited www.focus-images.co.uk +44 7813 022858)

The Norwich City parallels? Look no further than Todd Cantwell.

Cantwell, 24, may be almost a decade behind in his development, but, like Bairstow, has encountered several off-field obstacles and been the subject of considerable criticism from City fans and beyond.

Much of it has been justified. The pace at which Cantwell went from arguably our most eye-catching player in that 2019/20 Premier League season - after blossoming towards the end of the Championship and starring once again in our next title-winning campaign - to almost completely anonymous last year was bizarre.

Let's be clear - even with a fit and firing Cantwell, last season's City side were still miles off the Premier League pace but in any event, the absence of a bold, creative player behind Teemu Pukki after the sale of Emi Buendia hampered City's output badly.

Instead, Cantwell was sent off to Bournemouth on loan where he similarly failed to make an impression - in a league he knew well.

But Achilles issues, personal problems and social media choices aside, it's not too late for Cantwell to switch back on, buy into Dean Smith's new-look Norwich City and help fire the Canaries back to the big time.

A fully-focused Cantwell at the top of his game can be one of City's most potent weapons.

He catapulted himself into the spotlight with a series of sparkling top-flight performances three years ago, before his red-hot partnership with Buendia and Pukki the following season helped City soar to the title in splendid isolation.

Many have been quick to brand Cantwell's character, or attitude, as the issue behind his recent decline. After all, he's too good a player to endure a season as poor as last year, where he failed to make an impression under three different managers - Farke, Smith and Scott Parker - and looked in danger of veering his career irreparably off the rails.

But on the basis of City's pre-season exploits, particularly that eye-catching 3-0 win in Marseille, Cantwell has showed signs of being back to his best.

He grabbed a goal in City's 2-2 draw against Jahn Regensburg before his consistently creative presence, capped by a sprinkling of south French style, helped Smith's side topple the might of Champions League-bound Marseille in their own back yard.

If City are to mount any form of assault on the Championship title, they will need a player of Cantwell’s mould, and ability, creating, marauding and innovating behind Pukki and Co - the player they were so severely lacking during last season’s Premier League horror-show.

It’s now up to Cantwell to rehabilitate his reputation, channel the no-nonsense attitude of Bairstow and banish his Norwich City demons - starting at Cardiff this weekend.