Ashes 2023: Stuart Broads questions silence from senior Australian players on Jonny Bairstow dismissal

English pacer Stuart Broad has expressed shock at the silence from Australian veterans on Jonny Bairstow’s dismissal on Day 5 of the second Ashes Test, which Australia won by 43 runs.

“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 wrote in his Daily Mail column.

The incident happened when England were still 175 runs short of the 371 run target at a loss of five wickets. Bairstow ducked a short ball from Cameron Green, and as it was the last ball of the over, he moved across to join his skipper Ben Stokes at the other end.

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But he didn’t know that Alex Carey behind the wickets had taken a shot at the stumps after he walked out. A surprised Bairstow looked back to a stumps dislodged. The on-field umpires took it upstairs with the TV umpire lawfully adjudging it to be out.

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Although no one questioned the legality of the decision, England players, fans, MCC members and the media called it unsporting. Chants of “same old Aussies, always cheating” reverberated at the Lord’s.

Broad noted that the silence from Australian players was disturbing especially after the 2018 ball-tampering scandal and the cultural review that followed.

“Especially given what their team has been through over recent years, with all their cultural change. Not one of them said: ‘Hang on, lads. I’m not really sure about this.’ Not one of them thought: ‘He’s gaining no advantage. He’s not trying to get a run. It’s the end of the over. It’s a bit of a random dismissal. We should cancel that appeal.’

However, he did believe that Pat Cummins, the Australian skipper, would realise that taking back the appeal would have been the right thing to do as soon after the moment has passed.

“Ultimately, Pat Cummins is a really great guy and I would be amazed, once the emotion settles if he does not sit back and think, ‘I got that one wrong’, even though his bottom line at the time was winning a Test match,” he wrote.

Broad had some words with the Australians on the field as replaced Jonny Bairstow in the middle.

“The red mist came over me, too, when I arrived at the crease to replace Jonny, and some of what I said was picked up on the stump mics — which naively, given my experience, I didn’t really think about. I was angered by Australia’s decision, particularly having heard their lines about creating a new legacy as a team, and how they have changed since the tour of South Africa in 2018. I just said to Pat on repeat: ‘All these boos are for you, for your decision.’ And: ‘What a great opportunity you had to think clearly.’

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