Since the controversial dismissal of England wicket-keeper batter Jonny Bairstow on Day 5 of the Lord's Test, the cricketing fraternity is divided in deciding if it was right for Australia to play by the 'rules of the game' but keep the 'spirit of the game' aside. While England captain Ben Stokes said that he wouldn't want to win the game in such a manner, Australia batter Travis Head has revealed that Bairstow tired to dismiss him in the same manner during the Edgbaston Test, and the two even had a chat about it.
"I sort of reminded Jonny last week I walked out of my crease at Edgbaston, at the end of the over," Head said on the Willow Talk podcast.
"And the ball got whipped in, and I quickly whipped my bat back and questioned Jonny: would you take the stumps? And he said, 'Bloody oath I would,' and ran off," he added.
After the Lord's incident, Head even went to have a chat with Bairstow, reminding him of the Edgbaston incident where the latter had tried to do exactly what Alex Carey did.
"So I sort of reminded him that remember last week when you said you'd do exactly the same thing? Whether he remembered saying that or not, but two days before he also tried to throw Marnus' stumps down.
"So in the moment, in the heat of the battle, things come out and things have played out. I know they have questioned it differently if they were in the same situation, but with all the heat out there, doing it a couple of hours later and saying that is a little bit different than in the moment. We'll never know that, we move on, and at the end of the day to the letter of the law it was out. That's their opinion and we've got ours," Head went on to say.
While the captains of both the teams -- Ben Stokes and Pat Cummins -- have spoken of the Bairstow dismissal, the wicket-keeper batter himself is yet to break his silence.