While the cricket world is abuzz with the recent controversy surrounding the bizarre dismissal of England’s Jonny Bairstow during the fifth day of the second Ashes Test at the Lord’s Sunday, India’s Ravichandran Ashwin has backed Australia’s Alex Carey, who stumped the opponents’ batter.
Carey threw the ball at the stumps after Bairstow walked out of his crease after ducking under a Cameron Green bouncer.
Bairstow seemingly believed the ball was dead at the end of the over but following a referral by his colleagues in the middle, TV umpire Marais Erasmus confirmed the batsman had been stumped.
Bairstow row was a classic of the kind, with even England captain Ben Stokes accepting Erasmus had made the correct decision but questioning whether Australia ought to have proceeded with the appeal.
“If the shoe was on the other foot I would have put more pressure on the umpires and asked whether they had called over and had a deep think about the whole spirit of the game and would I want to do something like that. For Australia, it was a match-winning moment. Would I want to win a game in that manner? The answer for me is no.”
When prompted to comment if he would’ve withdrawn the appeal for a run-out in a similar scenario, Stokes said: “Yes”.
In response to the event, Ashwin said that the game smartness of the player must be appreciated instead of criticisng him.
“We must get one fact loud and clear. ‘The keeper would never have a dip at the stumps from that far out in a test match unless he or his team have noticed a pattern of the batter leaving his crease after leaving a ball like Bairstow did’,” he said.
“We must applaud the game smarts of the individual rather than skewing it towards unfair play or spirit of the game.”
