Former England batter Mark Butcher feels Jonny Bairstow’s dismissal in Lord’s Test is just as plain as day out. Bairstow was stumped by Australian wicket-keeper Alex Carey in the second innings of the second Test, which England went on to lose by 43 runs.
The England wicket-keeper prematurely left the crease before the umpire declared the end of ‘over’. Carey showed great match awareness as the ball was still in play and it was not ‘dead’.
Bairstow was dismissed after scoring 10 runs and it was a big wicket for Australia. The England wicket-keeper was stunned when Australia appealed for stumping and he had to walk back to the pavilion after the third umpire gave the decision in favor of the visitors.
“For me, it’s just as plain as day out. And pretty much to all of the other professional cricketers I have spoken to, they all say exactly the same thing,” Butcher told the Wisden Cricket Weekly podcast.
Butcher slammed Bairstow for his lack of game awareness and not noticing where the ball was before he decided to leave the crease.
“Why didn’t he (Bairstow) make sure that he knew where the ball was and what was going on before he left (the crease)?” added Butcher.
Former England number three admitted Bairstow was accurately given out by the third umpire as per the laws of the game.
“I was listening to it on the radio. Nobody had really described what had happened apart from, ‘oh no, oh this, oh dear’,”
“So I got on the phone to call my old man (father Alan, also a former cricketer). I said, ‘Just tell me what happened, just walk me through it’. So he walked me through it and I said, ‘So that’s out then, isn’t it?’ And he said, ‘yeah’.
In fact, a lot of cricket experts have questioned Australia’s tactics but Butcher feels Bairstow is to be blamed for his dismissal as he made a schoolboy blunder.
“What was he doing? Where was he going? Of course, now we’ve got an international incident. We’ve got people saying they’re not going to have a beer with each other after the game.”
The third Ashes Test will be played at Leeds, Headingley from Thursday onwards.
