Jonny Bairstow admitted trying Ashes stumping identical to Alex Carey’s, Travis Head claims
Australian batsman Travis Head claims he called out Jonny Bairstow amid the Alex Carey stumping furore for trying exactly the same thing in the previous Ashes Test.
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Jonny Bairstow admitted trying an Alex Carey-style stumping in the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston, Australian batsman Travis Head has claimed amid English fury over the Lord’s incident.
From the Long Room to 10 Downing Street, the Aussies have been accused of breaching the spirit of cricket after Bairstow was caught leaving his crease before the ball was deemed dead at the end of an over.
Veteran England paceman Stuart Broad claimed that Bairstow was attempting no advantage and Australia’s senior players should have reconsidered their appeal. Coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes also condemned the dismissal.
Yet speaking on LiSNTR’s Willow Talk podcast, Head revealed that he’d had a quiet word to Bairstow while awaiting the third umpire’s verdict on the incident.
“Jonny wasn’t too pleased,” Head said. “And I sort of reminded Jonny last week I walked out of my crease at the end of an over.
“I quickly whipped my bat back and questioned Jonny on whether he would take the stumps and he said, ‘Bloody oath I would’, and ran off.”
Head didn’t mind Bairstow’s intent and had a little giggle about it at the time. Bairstow also tried a similar stumping of Marnus Labuschagne in the second Test, though with the rationale that the Australian No.3 was batting out of his crease and therefore trying to gain an advantage.
While British PM Rishi Sunak chimed in with his 10 pence, saying via a spokesman that “he simply wouldn’t want to win a game in the manner Australia did”, Head said the method of keeping a batter on his toes was not new.
“We’d seen (Bairstow) try to do it and I’ve seen it happen a few times,” Head said, recalling an incident in a South Australia v NSW Sheffield Shield game.
“Remember Tommy Cooper getting done at the SCG. ‘Nevs’ (Peter Nevill) threw the stumps down on him.
“If you put on the England hat, they’re disappointed. But the Australia (side), to the letter of the law, which was explained with Mitchell Starc’s catch the day before that it would be out...
“I know they’ve questioned it differently if they were in the same situation but with all the heat out of the air, saying that is a little bit different than in the moment.
“(Stuart Broad’s) comments that the whole of Australia would wake up and Pat wouldn’t be captain … He seems to forget our fans are pretty loyal and pretty happy with the way the Australians are going about things.”
Head said that the Australians, now in Leeds preparing for Thursday’s resumption of hostilities in the third Test, would continue to stick to a theme agreed upon at the start of the tour.
“This whole series has been about embracing it and dealing with these things,” Head told Willow Talk.
“An Ashes series is high emotion, the crowd gets involved. I stood in front of the Hollies (at Edgbaston) last week and got called every name under the sun.
“You’ve got to take it. You smile and have a joke, try to be as calm and consistent as we can.
“It’s OK for crowd members, they pay their money, to say whatever they want. Some of it is below the belt, some of it is OK and pretty humorous.”
Head is expecting more of the same in the Third Test.
Headingley’s Popular Enclosure, the epicentre of mayhem when Ben Stokes pulled off the impossible four years ago, is expected to be as vociferous as ever, especially with it being Bairstow’s home ground.
Head knows what’s coming in his deep fielding role.
“Hopefully they remember I played for Yorkshire for a couple of games years ago but I don’t think it’s going to be much good!” he laughed. “It’s going to be an electric crowd.”
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