McCullum: England’s attempt to win back the Ashes after Bairstow’s dismissal will be “galvanized”
Brendon McCullum informed Australia that the remainder of the series will play out less peacefully against a fired-up England team as a result of Alex Carey’s contentious stumping of Jonny Bairstow at Lords.
Following Australia’s 43-run victory in the second Test at Lord’s, which gave them a 2-0 lead over England, the incident has taken over the news cycle. Ben Stokes, the captain, predicted that the tension would spread to Headingley, a venue renowned for its tense energy, before the third Test began on Thursday.
With 135 not out, Ben Stokes produced his second historical performance of the summer of 2019 to tie the score between England and Australia. He nearly repeated the performance at Lord’s when he used the debate to his advantage and hit 155 with nine sixes and the same number of fours.
What was anticipated to be a friendly series between the two sides has now gained momentum. Rishi Sunak, the prime minister of the United Kingdom, intervened on Monday to add his voice to those criticizing the tourists for failing to uphold the spirit of cricket.
The strongest voices off the field have come from those who are not involved, but McCullum predicted that the conflict between the English and Australian players will make the series more heated. He also affirmed Stokes’ assertion that England would have dropped its appeal if the situation had been reversed.
“I imagine it will affect it, I think it has to,”
said McCullum of the spirit in which the remaining three Tests will be played.
“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.
“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 galvanized 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 to come back and rectify things.
“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.”
By doing things that weren’t all that distinct from Carey’s, McCullum acknowledged his own past. In the second innings of the first Test match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka in 2006, Muttiah Muaralitharan was run out by the former New Zealand wicket keeper after he had left his crease to celebrate teammate Kumar Sangakkara’s hundred after finishing a single.
In a 2016 Cowdrey Lecture at Lord’s, McCullum spoke about the incident and said that, if he could “turn back time,” he would not have changed the decision to fire him. He believes that Australia will be impacted.
“Obviously I’ve made an apology to Murali in my Cowdrey Lecture,” McCullum said. “When I was a younger man, I didn’t quite understand the significance of what the game and the spirit of the game meant to the game. It’s what the defining point of the game is compared to others, and it’s only with the benefit of time and experience that we’re able to learn that and cherish it. In time, we’ll see, but I get the feeling that it might have an effect on them.”
A team that overcame a 2-0 disadvantage and went on to win the Ashes hasn’t occurred since Don Bradman’s Australia in the 1936–1937 series. The two games were closely contested, especially the first one at Edgbaston, which Australia won by two wickets. This gives England hope. If the hosts were to reverse the situation, it would unquestionably be their most memorable victory in this rivalry.
McCullum has confidence in his team to do the extraordinary provided they learn from their failures under pressure. The players continue to be in a good mood and have a tangible sense of excitement that they can accomplish something amazing.
“3-2 has a nice ring to it,” McCullum said. “We’ve got to polish up a couple of the areas where the game has sat on a knife-edge and we haven’t been able to grab it. We knew coming into this series it was going to be tight and there was going to be those moments. If we can do that, there’s no reason why we can’t bounce back. Morale is high and we’ve played some good cricket amongst things as well, and we look forward to the opportunity.
“We always say that if we are winning and things are going great, you don’t want to get too high, and if we are losing you don’t want to get too low either. We are on a path to where we want to get to and want to stick to that. Because a) it’s fun, and b) I think it gives us our best chance. Albeit we are 2-0 down at the moment, I think it gives us our best chance of winning the series.”