Australia’s former captain Mark Taylor has shared his opinion on the controversial Jonny Bairstow dismissal in the recent second Ashes 2023 Test at Lord’s and said that it is the batter’s job to remain inside the crease until the ball is dead.
On day 5 of the Test, as England was trying their level best to chase down 371 runs with Ben Stokes going gung-ho on the Australian bowlers, Jonny Bairstow was supposed to keep his skipper company.
However, he was out controversially, when he evaded a slow bouncer from Australia's Cameron Green and stepped out of the crease, assuming that the ball was no longer in play. However, wicketkeeper Alex Carey swiftly broke the stumps with a direct throw, resulting in Bairstow being declared stumped by the third umpire, Marais Erasmus.
This led to Australian cricketers being booed and called cheaters by the raucous England crowd at the Lord’s.
"The batsmen have to remember there are 10 ways to get out in Test cricket. One of them is by being stumped, and it doesn't say in the laws it has to be off a slow bowler. If you're going to wander out of your crease doing whatever you want to do, be mindful that you can be stumped. So, your job as a batsman is to get back in your crease until the ball is dead," Taylor in his column for Sydney Morning Herald.
Taylor claimed that the method of dismissal had been legal for as long as he had understood the game and played it, and he had "no issues" with what Australia captain Pat Cummins and his squad were doing at the time.
"I've got no issue at all with what Pat Cummins and the Australian team did during the last day of the Lord's Test when they stumped Jonny Bairstow. It's a legitimate form of dismissal and has been as long as I've known the game of cricket. I've seen many wicketkeepers throwing the ball towards the stumps to try and claim an unsuspecting batsman's wicket,” Taylor added.
Taylor said just two days before Bairstow's dismissal, the England wicketkeeper-batter had himself had been criticized for a "controversial stumping".
"Jonny Bairstow found himself on the receiving end of a controversial stumping, but two days earlier tried to pull one off himself -- the incident drawing parallels with England head coach Brendon McCullum when he stumped Paul Collingwood,” he said.
Bairstow's dismissal mirrored an incident in 2009 involving Paul Collingwood of England and then-New Zealand cricketer and now-England coach Brendon McCullum.
During a Champions Trophy game in Johannesburg, Collingwood had strayed off his crease after leaving the final ball of an over, and keeper McCullum threw the ball at the stumps. However, the Kiwi captain Vettori recalled the batter.
"I can remember Rod Marsh throwing the ball towards the stumps off Dennis Lillee's bowling, Ian Healy did the same thing when a batsman was out of his crease, we've seen Jonny Bairstow do it in the latest Test, I've seen footage of England coach Brendon McCullum doing it back in 2009. This sort of stuff has been going on for a long time," added Taylor.
"I'm disappointed with the way the Australian players were treated after completing this entirely legitimate dismissal, particularly in the Long Room (at Lord's). I will congratulate Guy Lavender, CEO of the MCC, for getting onto it reasonably quickly, calming down the MCC members and suspending three of them. However, I think that's the minimum amount they need to do at this stage,” Taylor signed off.
(PTI inputs)
