Cricket World Cup: Australia respond to England barbs over Jonny Bairstow Ashes drama

As Australia looks to twist the knife in England’s abysmal World Cup campaign, one of its stars has reacted to their Ashes foe rekindling the most heated cricket topic of the year.

David Warner has been left bemused by Stuart Broad’s recent comments on the Jonny Bairstow saga but the Aussies seem unwilling to publicly re-litigate the dismissal as the sides prepare to meet for the first time since the conclusion of a testy Ashes series.

The traditional rivals meet in the World Cup group stage at Ahmedabad’s monstrous Narendra Modi Stadium on Saturday.

While the barnstorming Aussies are vying for a fifth straight win to further entrench themselves inside the World Cup’s top four, England’s title hopes are effectively gone. The defending champions sit at the foot of the table and face an uphill task even to qualify for the 2025 Champions Trophy, which will be contested by hosts Pakistan and the top seven sides from the 10-team World Cup league stage.

But the match also comes against the backdrop of this year’s drawn Ashes series and in particular the flashpoint of Alex Carey’s stumping of England wicketkeeper Bairstow on the final day of the second Test at Lord’s.

England's Jonny Bairstow was furious at being given out stumped during the Ashes. Picture: AFP

Bairstow had largely kept his counsel on the incident before extracts from Lawrence Booth and Nick Hoult‘s new book Bazball: the Inside Story of a Test Cricket Revolution were released last week in London’s Telegraph.

“If you’re starting out of your crease, you’re trying to gain an advantage. If you start in your crease, and not trying to take a run, and you finish in your crease … That’s the bit – if you try to gain an advantage, then it’s fair game. But if you’re starting in your crease, you’ve ducked, tap, tap, scratched. I’ve even dragged my bat, looked up, and then gone,” Bairstow said.

“I’ve never seen it happen from someone starting in their crease. I don’t think you want that filtering down into kids’ cricket. Look at the Mankads and everything like that. You want young kids to be out there batting and having fun, not thinking about whether the fielders might do this or that.

“It might tarnish people’s enjoyment of the game that we’re trying to get kids into. You want to be out there batting and bowling, rather than thinking about the 11 different ways you can get someone out.”

Stuart Broad said he was embarrassed by his antics in the wake of the Bairstow wicket. Picture: Getty

Now-retired paceman Stuart Broad opened up about the aftermath of the incident in the Up Front podcast last week, revealing he called Australian captain Pat Cummins an “absolute disgrace” for not withdrawing the appeal.

“Then the next 10 minutes became me being very facetious and shouting in every time, which I had huge regrets about that night,” Broad said.

“I was hugely embarrassed about it but I had no real control over what I was doing.”

Australia's David Warner is eager to inflict more pain on England’s World Cup campaign. Picture: Getty

The Aussies have indicated a reluctance to open the old wounds.

Mitch Marsh and Josh Inglis both played straight bats to questions since the Bairstow quotes were released, although opener Warner expressed his bemusement at Broad’s comments without addressing the stumping itself.

“Someone said something today about Broady,” Warner said of his old nemesis’ remarks.

“Broady says he was embarrassed by what he did. But he was wasn‘t in his control which I don’t actually know what that means to be honest. How do you not have control? But it is what it is.”

For all that, Warner is wary of England’s threat.

“It‘d be nice to (inflict further punishment), but they’re the teams that are the most dangerous, when there’s nothing to lose. They’ve got some very very quality players and we have to respect that. They bat to 11 and their bowling unit is very good so for us we’ve just got to start as well as we can.”

Originally published as Cricket World Cup: Australia respond to England barbs over Jonny Bairstow Ashes drama