The conversation over Jonny Bairstow's controversial dismissal during the second Ashes Test match between England and Australia at Lord's has led to a broader conversation over the 'spirit of cricket'. Fans and experts alike are currently split over the topic with many of them comparing the incident with previous dismissals or instances on social media. England fast bowler Stuart Broad opened up about the ongoing discussion and explained his point of view on Bairstow's stumping during the match.
"Yes, I have seen a clip from earlier in the match when in his guise as wicketkeeper, Jonny himself threw the ball at the stumps. But that was because Marnus Labuschagne was batting outside of his crease — in doing so, attempting to take the lbw out of the game. In other words, seeking an advantage. Clips of Colin de Grandhomme being run out in the Lord's Test last year have done the rounds, too, and that is just the most ludicrous comparison ever, because he got hit on the pad coming down the pitch, was searching for a run and Ollie Pope threw down the stumps from gully. Again, trying to gain an advantage," Broad wrote in his latest column for Daily Mail.
"With regards to the Jonny incident, zero advantage was being taken there: he let the ball go, scratched his mark within the crease, and acknowledging it as the end of the over, went to speak to Ben Stokes. And if you look at the footage of when the stumps were broken, one umpire has got the bowler's cap in his hand, the other is head down, walking in from square leg — actions that suggest they too thought the over had finished," Broad further wrote while discussing the controversy that followed the incident.
Broad further added that he was 'amazed' by how the Australian cricketers handled the situation and he thought that at least one senior member of the team will challenge the decision.
"What amazed me, and what I told the Australians I could not believe as we left the field at lunch, was that not one senior player among them — and I very much understand in the emotion of the game that the bowler and wicketkeeper would have thought ‘that's out' — questioned what they had done," he added.