Test cricket is the oldest and the most interesting form of cricket. Since the beginning, this format has held a lot of exciting memories. There are a lot of series played in this format by different countries. Among all, the Ashes is one of the most interesting competitions of test cricket. In the last Ashes, there was a little controversy over the stumping of Jonny Bairstow. Stuart Broad expressed his opinion on that matter.
What was the Matter?
At Lord’s Cricket Ground, England and Australia met for the second test of the Ashes. On the 5th day of the series, when Bairstow was on the crease, Aussie bowler Cameron Green bowled a bouncer to him. After ducking on that ball, the batter walked out of the crease assuming the ball was a dead one. But Australian wicketkeeper Alex Carey directly threw the ball onto the stumps and Bairstow was given out.
After the dismissal, the English crowd was booing over the Australian team. They were verbally abused by the fans present on the ground. After the controversial stumping incident, Australia won the match by 43 runs. The cricket world was divided into two because of this incident.
Stuart Broad on this Matter:
English star Stuart Broad retired from International cricket a few times back. This controversial stumping incident is still not over his head. Recently, during an interaction, he talked about it. He said, Ben Stokes never appealed for that.
He said, “My feelings haven’t changed. I’m slightly more relaxed than I was at Lord’s and I do cringe about going into red-mist mode, but I don’t think it was the right decision and I can guarantee Ben Stokes would have made a different one. But that Bairstow dismissal ignited the series for us. It dragged out the England-Australia rivalry. We hardly lost a session after it. It brought a bit of needle to the next Test at Leeds. I dismissed David Warner in the first over and emotion got the better of me — I ran at the crowd, yelling, ‘Come on!”
Australia won the match by 43 runs and took a lead in the series of 2-0. But the English squad bounced back soon. They won two matches and the Manchester Test ended with a draw. After the series leveled at 2-2, Ashes ended with a draw. He also recalled his conversation with James Anderson.
While talking about this, he said, “A few weeks later Jimmy sent this WhatsApp message, he’d been videoing me. I took my boots off, there was blood everywhere, and I chucked them in the bin — that was me signaling, ‘OK, I’m done’. I didn’t even remember I’d done that. I was knackered, I’d played six Tests back-to-back, and my emotions had been sky high and so low, and when I saw that video it was as if there was this big light shining out like in the movies.”
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