Australia captain Pat Cummins gave an apt one-word reply when being told that England captain Ben Stokes said that he would’ve taken back the appeal in case of Jonny Bairstow’s dismissal in the Lord’s Test of the ongoing Ashes 2023.
The England batter was stumped by Alex Carey after he wandered out of his crease assuming the ball was dead having ducked underneath a short delivery from Cameron Green.
Wicketkeeper Alex Carey hit the bull’s eye to have his English counterpart stumped and the TV umpire gave Bairstow out after watching the replays and that resulted in the crowd booing the Australian teams through the remainder of the morning session on day five.
Much was talked about this dismissal and Ben Stokes said that he wouldn’t have done the same thing in a similar situation.
“If the shoe was on the other foot I would have put more pressure on the umpires and asked whether they had called over and had a deep think about the whole spirit of the game and would I want to do something like that. For Australia, it was the match-winning moment. Would I want to win a game in that manner? The answer for me is no,” Stokes said on BBC’s Test Match Special.
Asked whether he would have withdrawn the appeal, Stokes said, "Yeah."
During an interaction with BBC’s Test Match Special, the presenter told Australia captain Pat Cummins that Stokes says he would have withdrawn the appeal.
“OK,"- Cummins gave a blunt, one-word response.
And continued, “(It was) fair play. That is the rule. That is how I saw it."
When asked if there’s any bad blood between the two opponents following the controversy, Cummins said, “Not from our team, you might have to ask them. It was a wonderful contest, it’s been a great Ashes series so far."
Cummins had defended Alex Carey saying that the Australian keeper had observed Bairstow leaving the crease on multiple occasions with the ball seemingly in play.
“I think Carey saw it happen a few balls previously, three or four balls previously, and there’s no pause, catch it, straightaway and throw at the stumps. I thought it was fair play. That’s how the rule is. Some people might disagree. That’s how I saw it," Cummins told Sky TV.
