Jonny Bairstow was casual and careless, Alex Carey was sharp: David Gower on stumping row in Lord’s Test

By India Today Sports Desk: Former England captain David Gower believes Jonny Bairstow was casual and careless, while Alex Carey was sharp behind the wickets as he stumped out the England wicketkeeper on Day 5 of the second Ashes Test at Lord’s.

The cricketing world was set ablaze by a controversial stumping incident during the second Test at Lord’s between England and Australia. The incident involved Australian wicketkeeper Alex Carey and English batsman Jonny Bairstow, and it has since sparked a heated debate about the ‘Spirit of Cricket’.

“I’m of the opinion that Jonny Bairstow, sadly, was casual and careless. If you just think about it for a moment, and I’m sure he would have thought about it constantly, the assumption he made was not an assumption you should make in the midst of an Ashes Test match,” David Gower told Betway in an exclusive interview.

On the fifth day of the match, England were chasing a record target of 371 for victory, with their score poised at 193 for 5. Bairstow, after ducking a bouncer from Cameron Green, wandered out of his crease, believing the ball to be dead. However, an alert Carey seized the opportunity and made a direct hit onto the stumps, stumping out Bairstow.

The dismissal left Bairstow dumbfounded and the crowd at Lord’s hostile. The decision was sent upstairs for review, and third official Marais Erasmus upheld the on-field decision, leading to a fierce reaction from the London crowd. England captain Ben Stokes and Bairstow expressed their displeasure to the Australian team before Bairstow reluctantly left the field.

The incident sparked a wide-ranging debate that even drew in the prime ministers of both nations. England suggested that the dismissal was not in the spirit of cricket, while Australia faced boos from the Lord’s crowd and criticism from some members of the MCC.

“Yes, the ball had gone into the keeper’s hands, but that little tap of the toe as if to say, ‘I’m in, I can do what I want now,’ was naive, I’m afraid. All he had to do was just look behind him for a moment.

“That’s what we’ve always done in Test cricket, whether it’s Bazball or any other era. If you’re thinking straight as a batsman, you just look behind you. He would’ve seen the throw coming, he’d have dotted his bat in, and he’d have been absolutely fine. The fact that he went for a stroll straight away was a false assumption and a bad mistake,” Gower said.

“As far as I’m concerned, Carey was just being sharp. There was nothing underhand about what Carey did – apart from the throw, which was spot on – it was just sharpness of thinking. Cummins has been under pressure for not recalling Bairstow. But if he recalls Bairstow, what’s the message? You can be as stupid as you like? Some of my friends have said to me, ‘Oh, you’d have called him back.’ And I’m not sure I would have,” Gower added.