‘Always out’ – Pat Cummins stands his ground on Jonny Bairstow’s stumping saga

Bairstow and Pat Cummins. (Photo Source: Twitter)

Jonny Bairstow had an eventful Ashes campaign as he found himself in the news on a number of occasions. While his topsy-turvy performances both behind and in front of the stumps, made the news, it was his controversial dismissal in the second Test at Lord’s that hogged the limelight.

The experienced campaigner came into bat at a crucial stage in the fourth innings of the Lord’s Test. He joined skipper Ben Stokes as England were in pursuit of a daunting target of 371 on Day 5. The hosts were in a dangerous situation at 177/5 and desperately needed a partnership from Stokes and Bairstow. However, the latter was dismissed in a bizarre way.

After evading a Cameron Green short ball, Bairstow strolled out of the crease, thinking that the ball was dead. Australian wicketkeeper Alex Carey, however, was aware as he under-armed the ball and hit the stumps to find his opposite number short of the crease. This stumping dismissal sparked huge controversy as some felt that it was against the spirit of the game. Australia captain Pat Cummins recently said in an interview that the particular method of dismissal wasn’t new to him.

I haven’t experienced anything like that before…. but I will say across my career, I’ve seen that type of dismissal at least 20 times, and it is always out,” the fast bowler said on Channel Seven’s Sunrise.

‘It was getting pretty heated’ – Pat Cummins on the long room incident involving David Warner and Usman Khawaja

After Bairstow’s dismissal, the Australian players were being booed when they were making their way through the long room during the Lunch break. Usman Khawaja and David Warner stopped in their tracks and had a heated argument with the spectators. Cummins said that he heard about the incident from his teammates and they tried to compose themselves for the task at hand post-lunch.

“Davey [Warner] and Ussie [Khawaja] went back at a few of the members following some comments, it was getting pretty heated. I got the gossip from the other guys, then we all took a deep breath and looked to stay composed. We had a break, and then re-set,” said Cummins.

Controversies aside, this Ashes was special and cricket enthusiasts will remember it fondly for a very long time.