Australia’s Alex Carey appeals successfully for the wicket of England’s Jonny Bairstow. (Reuters)
Australia captain Pat Cummins has admitted his role in the controversial stumping of England’s Jonny Bairstow at Lord’s.
In the third season of the documentary The Test, Australia captain Pat Cummins says he enouraged wicketkeeper Alex Carey to stump the English middle-order batter.
Cam Green was bowling and bowled a bouncer and he (Bairstow) ducked underneath it and then just walked out of his crease,” Cummins said to the program, via ESPN.
“So I just said to Kez (Carey) the ball before, I said ‘Kez, just have a throw’.”
With England on 193-5 and chasing a mammoth target of 371, Australia wicketkeeper Alex Carey underarmed the ball at the stumps after Bairstow left his crease at the end of an over.
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Following the Bairstow stumping, Carey endured significant abuse from crowds and on social media, and the Australian cricketers recollected how the gloveman lost his form and confidence.
“I could sense he wasn’t quite right mentally and I can understand it,” said Steve Smith.
“I was worried about him and his well-being.”
Pat Cummins and Alex Carey’s unbeaten 50-run stand for the eighth wicket helped Australia beat New Zealand in Christchurch.
Usman Khawaja added: “Everyone projected on Kez and didn’t project on anyone else. It was all on Kez.
“Looking back on it, I just feel so bad for him what he went through at the time and what his family would have gone through being there at the time. It would have been so hard.”
However, the matter did not end there and Australia spinner Nathan Lyon revealed that Bairstow had confronted the Kangaroos in the players’ lunchroom.
Speaking on the Willow Talk Cricket Podcast last year, Lyon had said, “There were a few Australian guys and a few English guys in the lunchroom, and I hobbled up on my crutches and stood in the middle of it and tried to calm things down a little bit,” Lyon laughed.
“Jonny had a few words here or there. That’s all part of it, I’m all for it.”
“The emotions in the change room were quite remarkable,” Lyon continued.
“Everyone was gobsmacked but found it hilarious because you walk through that Long Room, and you’re more chance of getting sued than punched.
“So you look at it like that and all these guys abusing you and you’re like, ‘What’s going on here?’
“It was quite funny in all respects.”
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