Joe Root is expecting Jonny Bairstow to turn up at Headingley with “the bit between his teeth” and warned Australia to prepare for one of the batter’s trademark backlashes following last weekend’s Lord’s controversy.
Bairstow was left furious after being stumped by Australian wicketkeeper Alex Carey while wandering out of his crease on the final day of the Second Test.
The England batter had wrongly assumed that the ball had already been called dead and the incident has prompted a furious debate - even involving both countries’ prime ministers - in the build-up to this week’s Third Test on Bairstow’s home ground in Leeds.
Bairstow has a history of producing remarkable performances at moments of perceived injustice. During the 2019 World Cup, the Yorkshire batter was involved in a spat with former England captain Michael Vaughan and responded with back-to-back centuries in must-win group games, while after losing the gloves to Ben Foakes in Sri Lanka in 2018 came out swinging with a hundred batting at No3.
“I don’t think he took it great,” Root said of his teammate’s reaction to his Lord’s dismissal. “Jonny does thrive off things like this, he has done previously. Playing at his home ground, I’m sure he will want to entertain the local crowd. I think it is set up nicely for him but you have still got to go and do it. You can bet your bottom dollar he will have the bit between his teeth.
“You want to be watching every ball this week. There is always something in these big series and this is it I guess - and it would have to involve Jonny. What a week he had.
“Go back to Edgbaston last year, someone said something to him - I think it was Virat [Kohli] - and brought the best out of him. Let’s hope it happens again.”
England go into the Headingley Test trailing 2-0 and knowing they must win to have any chance of regaining the Urn. On the face of it, the situation looks bleak, the scoreline akin to that which has seen numerous Ashes series away from home virtually written off.
However, England head coach Brendon McCullum believes his side will be “galvanised” by the controversy at Lord’s and Root insists the mood is far more upbeat that at this stage of previous doomed series Down Under.
“It does feel very different,” the former captain added. “I look at the two games and I feel we played all cricket in the first one and Australia snuck in the backdoor to win that game, credit to them, they saw an opportunity and they took it.
“I thought we played some really good stuff last week, so we’re looking at small very small margins in the two games which makes you feel a little bit hard done by to be where we are.
“I can say credit to Australia for taking advantage of those situations. And I’m sure they’ll argue that they managed those moments better than us. But it doesn’t feel like we’re miles away.
“I think you look at some of the defeats that we had on the last tour of Australia, they were by big margins. And we were massively outplayed. I don’t think that’s been the case at all this series till now. And I very much expect us to be right in the contest this week.
“We’ve got nothing to lose. We’ll throw everything at it. And I think it’s time for us to start writing our script.”
