"It Will, It Has To": Brendon McCullum On Jonny Bairstow Saga Affecting Game's Spirit

England's head coach Brendon McCullum thinks that Alex Carey's controversial stumping of Jonny Bairstow at Lords will "affect" the remaining three matches of Ashes. The final day of the second Ashes Test at Lord's Cricket Ground witnessed a debatable moment in the 52nd over when Australia wicket-keeper Alex Carey ran out England batter Jonny Bairstow with a direct throw.

Bairstow batting at 10 runs was stunned by the dismissal as he was not expecting a throw from the wicket-keeper as he just walked off the crease after leaving the ball. Many cricketers criticised the dismissal and called it against the spirit of the game.

Reflecting back on the incident, McCullum said that Australia's action will affect the spirit of the game.

"I imagine it will affect it, I think it has to. In the end, they made a play, they've got to live with that. We would have made a different play, but that's life," McCullum said as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

The former New Zealand batter is focusing on the remaining three tests and believes that they can come back in the series.

"From our point of view, we believe that we can still come back in this series, and that's where our focus has got to be. What I will say is it's a galvanised unit up there [the England dressing-room] and we saw the fight from the skipper, Broady [Stuart Broad] and the boys at the end there as well, which shows how much this means to the side. We'll lick our wounds and try and come back and rectify things," McCullum continued.

"In the end, Australia won the Test match and fair play to them. It's just a shame that when you've got millions of people all around the world, and you've got a full house at Lord's, and you've everyone's eyeballs on this series, that for the next couple of days probably the most talked about aspect is going to be that [the dismissal] and that's disappointing," he further added.

Australia managed to go 2-0 up in the series as they registered victory by a 43-run margin. Australia and England will square off in the third Test at Headingley Carnegie from July 6.

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Topics mentioned in this article

England Cricket Team Australia Cricket Team Brendon McCullum Jonny Bairstow Ashes 2023 Cricket