Brendon McCullum has said the Australia side will have to live with the controversial stumping of Jonny Bairstow and believes England have been “galvanised” by an incident that will sour relations with their Ashes opponents.
Coming from a head coach whose side sit 2-0 down going into the third Test starting on Thursday, such fighting talk is unlikely to send shockwaves through the touring side – even if playing at Headingley, in Bairstow’s home county of Yorkshire, means the hostile atmosphere on the fifth day at Lord’s is likely to continue.
Either way, Ben Stokes and his England players left London fired up by Bairstow’s dismissal for 10 during the fifth-day run chase. Believing the ball to be dead at the end of the 52nd over after ducking a short ball from Cameron Green, Bairstow strolled out of his crease at the same time the wicketkeeper Alex Carey hit the stumps with an underarm throw. Pat Cummins, Australia’s captain, was happy to go through with the appeal.
Asked after the 43-run defeat whether the fallout will affect the previously friendly vibes between the two teams during the remaining three Tests, McCullum replied: “I imagine it will affect it. I think it has to. In the end, they made a play, they’ve got to live with that. We would have made a different play but that’s life.
“I don’t know if it’s anger, but the unit is galvanised. There are times as a coach where you’ve got to reduce emotion because it’s going to bubble over and you can make poor decisions. And there’s times when you allow emotion to go because it’s going to galvanise the unit. That’s what I felt this emotion did for the side.”
McCullum has faced calls of hypocrisy during the febrile aftermath and is certainly speaking from experience, having effected two similar dismissals as New Zealand’s wicketkeeper. The most notable came in 2006 when he ran out Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan, when the No 11 was out of his crease celebrating a century for Kumar Sangakkara.
The 41-year-old has cited this as a major regret of his decorated playing career, and apologised to Muralitharan and Sangakkara 10 years on during the MCC Spirit of Cricket lecture he delivered at Lord’s in 2016. As such, his words are essentially a former player wishing the current generation do not repeat his mistakes – even if they are unlikely to change what have become entrenched views on the subject.
McCullum said: “When I was a younger man, I didn’t quite understand the significance of what the game and the spirit of the game means. It’s only with the benefit of time and experience that we were able to learn that and cherish it. In time, we’ll see, but I get the feeling that it might have an effect on [Australia].”
On the incident itself – the spark for a belligerent if ultimately thwarted 155 from Stokes – Australia’s head coach, Andrew McDonald, has confirmed it was a case of spotting Bairstow was repeatedly leaving his crease previously and Carey executing a plan.
McCullum has sympathy for his wicketkeeper, saying: “He felt as if the umpires had intimated that it was ‘over’ and I think the evidence sort of backs that up as well.”
The replays show the umpire Ahsan Raza starting to get the bowler’s cap ready to hand it back at the same time the stumps were broken, while Chris Gaffaney, the square-leg umpire, was also starting to walk in for the change of ends. There has been no evidence Raza had called “over”, however, and the officials were clearly content the ball was live as per law 20.1 given they referred the decision to the third umpire, Marais Erasmus.
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Less content was the Long Room in the Lord’s Pavilion, with MCC members voicing their anger at Australia’s players when they returned for the lunch interval and three individuals suspended by the club pending an investigation.
Security is expected to be stepped up at Headingley, both in light of the public anger towards Australia and the Just Stop Oil protest on the opening day at Lord’s – when Bairstow prevented a demonstrator from putting orange powder on the pitch and, after picking them up and walking 60 yards, dumped them over the boundary’s edge.
McCullum shared a lament that the controversial stumping which then bookended Bairstow’s eventful Test took attention away from the performance by Stokes on the final day. “We are so lucky to have him as our leader,” the New Zealander said.
A jaw-dropping assault of nine fours and nine sixes, mixed with dead-eyed defence, it was certainly another reminder of the all-rounder’s almost unrivalled will to win. But that England again found themselves needing a miracle from their captain remains a source of frustration, not least having had control of the match at 187 for one on day two.
McCullum insists their attacking approach will not change despite the 2-0 deficit, even if the personnel will. England are waiting to assess which of their seamers are ready to play, as well as Ollie Pope’s shoulder injury, while Australia have confirmed Nathan Lyon will miss the rest of the series following his calf tear.
