Australia captain Pat Cummins has said that there is no question of the spirit of cricket in Jonny Bairstow’s stumped dismissal in the second Ashes 2023 Test at Lord’s last week, given that as far as he is concerned, the England batter was out.
He also urged England to focus on themselves and their performances rather than debating over the spirit of cricket amid their anger at Jonny Bairstow’s controversial stumping.
The dismissal on the fifth and final day of the second Test, which Australia won by 43 runs despite Ben Stokes’ fighting 155-run knock, left the home side upset. England captain Ben Stokes felt it wasn’t something he would do.
“For what I think is a pretty common non-event, it does seem like everyone has a pretty strong opinion about it. I don’t think there’s any discussion; it’s out. If the shoe was on the other foot, I wouldn’t be looking at the opposition, I’d probably be thinking [about] our batter, and would be thinking it’s pretty silly,” Cummins was quoted by ESPNCricinfo.
Asked if England’s response to the Bairstow dismissal was an attempt to deflect from their shortcomings, Cummins instead focused on how his team had handled the situation.
“I know what our team does, and that’s we concentrate on ourselves. When we haven’t been playing up to scratch, we look pretty deeply at what we are doing and try to make amends. We don’t apportion blame to conditions or opposition or anything else going on. I’m proud of how our boys have conducted themselves [on] this tour, especially on that day five. I thought the way they maintained respect for the opposition, the umpires [and] the crowd, their dignity was first-class,” the Aussie captain said.
The third Test between the two sides will be played at Headingley from July 6 onwards.
