During Australia’s victory in the second Ashes Test at Lord’s, the dismissal of England’s wicketkeeper-batter Jonny Bairstow has garnered significant attention.
On the final day, just before the lunch break, Bairstow got out in a peculiar manner. In the 52nd over of the England’s second innings, the 32-year-old, after ducking a bouncer from Cameron Green, wandered out of his crease, and his counterpart Alex Carey stumped him.
Since Australia chose not to withdraw the appeal, the decision was referred to the third umpire. Bairstow was clearly outside of the striker crease and was ultimately declared out. The dismissal has sparked extensive debate in the past few hours.
England’s camp, including captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum, raised concerns about Australia’s tactics, invoking the spirit of cricket. However, Australian captain Pat Cummins backed Carey, stating that he adhered to the rules of the game.
Numerous current and former cricketers have also shared their thoughts on the matter. Former England captain Michael Atherton believes that the spirit of cricket debate has no connection to Bairstow’s dismissal and criticized the batter for his lackadaisical play.
“Cummins said the dismissal was a fair one and at no stage thought of revoking the appeal and calling back Bairstow. There was certainly no requirement for him to do so. The Spirit of Cricket does not come into it. It was a dozy bit of cricket from Bairstow to allow Carey the opportunity and reflected much of the flabby cricket played by England in this match,” Atherton wrote in his column for the Times.
Another former England captain, Eoin Morgan, dismissed the spirit of cricket debate regarding Bairstow’s stumping. Morgan stated that it was a clear case of Carey being alert and Bairstow being naive.
[It was] 100% out. I was on comms with Mark Taylor and he called it exactly right. In the balls leading up to his dismissal, this is just complete naivety,” Morgan was quoted as saying to Sky Sports Cricket.
“The ball is not dead at any stage and Jonny Bairstow leaves his crease. He’s obviously in his own little bubble, they are bowling short, bowling full, accurate bowling. Testing his defence. But you cannot do this, and it’s actually really smart from Alex Carey recognising what is going on. Bairstow’s in his own little world, and it’s an opportunity to take a wicket,” the cricketer-turned-commentator added.
Andrew Strauss also criticized Bairstow for his lack of awareness and expressed his comfort with the actions of the Australian team. Strauss also claimed that even he wouldn’t have withdrawn the appeal had he been in Cummins’ shoes.
“No, I don’t think so (on whether he would have withdrawn the decision) because Alex Carey just picked it up and threw it, there was no premeditated element to it. Jonny Bairstow was being dozey going outside of his crease. I was pretty comfortable with what Australia did there,” the former English skipper said to Sky Sports Cricket.
However, the 46-year-old also believes that the English crowd will not be lenient towards Australian captain Cummins and the rest of the team for not withdrawing their appeal.
“The emotions are so high in an Ashes series and now the Australians are the villains for the England fans, especially Pat Cummins with his decision to not withdraw the appeal against Jonny Bairstow. In truth, I mean there was absolutely nothing wrong with it but the crowd will look it through England patriotic eyes and will not like the look of that and Cummins would get a lot of stick for the remainder of the series on the back of that,” Strauss concluded.
