Australia’s Travis Head has revealed Jonny Bairstow threatened to commit the same act Alex Carey did against him as uproar continues from the second Test.
Bairstow was stumped in the second innings by the wicketkeeper after leaving his crease before the over was completed.
The decision has caused significant division between England and Australia with Bairstow notably irate when walking off the field, while his partner Ben Stokes was also arguing with the opposition before Stuart Broad came to the crease and made his anger clear through a range of exaggerated acts during his innings.
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Head has since indicated the England keeper was prepared to stump him in similar fashion during the first Test at Edgbaston.
“Jonny wasn’t too pleased,” Head said on the Willow Talk cricket podcast. “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.”
The middle order batsman went on to say it’s not the first time he’s seen it happen.
“We’d seen (Bairstow) try to do it and I’ve seen it happen a few times,” Head said, referring to a South Australia vs NSW Sheffield Shield match.
“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.”
England coach Brendon McCullum, who was critical of the stumping, stating “I can’t imagine we’ll be having a beer with them any time soon,” has since walked back on those comments.
“It’s a lovely line for the narrative isn’t it? In the end we’re all going to sit down and have a beer aren’t we? It was just a little bit of banter at the end there,” he said on SENZ Breakfast.
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