Travis Head exposes Jonny Bairstow's Ashes hypocrisy in damning comments
The Aussie batsman has taken a swipe at the hypocrisy surrounding Australia's second innings dismissal of Jonny Bairstow.
As England's collective meltdown continues over Alex Carey's stumping of Jonny Bairstow in the second Ashes Test at Lord's, Aussie batsman Travis Head has hit back at the criticism. The 29-year-old took aim at the sanctimonious response from England, in which they have repeatedly invoked the 'spirit of cricket' as a reason why Australia should have withdrawn the appeal against Bairstow, who had carelessly wandered out of his crease before either field umpire had called over.
Such has the outcry been that both the Australian and British prime ministers have felt it necessary to weigh in, but Head has thrown a little fuel on the fire by pointing out that Bairstow had attempted the same mode of dismissal against him earlier in the Lord's Test. It comes after video emerged of Bairstow attempting to catch fellow Australian batter Marnus Labuschagne out of his crease in similar fashion, also at Lord's.
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Speaking with the Willow Talk podcast, Head said Bairstow was 'not too happy' in the moments after Carey threw down his stumps, but reminded the English keeper of his own attempts earlier in in the Test. Safe to say, this did not go down well.
Head justified the move, saying Carey's actions were common both in English country cricket as well as the Sheffield Shield. He also suggested that it was rich for England to talk about the rules being applied to the letter of the law in order to wave off a Mitchell Starc catch, only to invoke unwritten rules of the game when the situation didn't benefit them.
“Jonny wasn’t too pleased,” Head quipped. “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. We’d seen him try to do it and I’ve seen it happen a few times.
“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 also brought up instances of England wicketkeepers, including Bairstow, waiting for the moment a batter lifts their foot from the crease only to stump them, declaring they were effectively the same mode of dismissal. He also argued England would never have withdrawn an appeal for a wicket like that, despite England captain Ben Stokes saying he would have, and that the team wouldn't want to win a Test match thanks to a wicket like that.
England doubles down on Bairstow wicket outcry
Meanwhile, Joe Root has doubled down on England's criticism of the Jonny Bairstow stumping, suggesting Australia's players risk being remembered for the incident after their careers. Root became the latest Englishman to attack the dismissal on Tuesday, adding more fuel to the fire for what is expected to be a heated third Test at Leeds come Thursday.
In a lengthy press conference at Headingley, Root claimed England would never have appealed for that kind of stumping during his five years as Test captain. But he saved the most direct advice for Australian players, while clearly still upset over Alex Carey dismissing Bairstow after the English batsman walked out of his crease.
"As a player it's (about) how you want to play the game, how you want to be remembered," Root said. "And that's up to each individual.
"As a team, we want to play our cricket a certain way and want to leave a certain legacy. I try and put myself in that situation and position and I would like to think I would have dealt with it differently."
With AAP
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