England head coach Brendon McCullum said the side will be motivated by the controversial dismissal of Jonny Bairstow on Day 5 of the second Ashes Test at Lord’s. However, he was dismissed bizarrely with England struggling at 193-5, chasing a mammoth 371 for victory. Bairstow ducked under a short delivery and before the ball became dead, he walked out of his crease. Meanwhile, Australian wicket-keeper Alex Carey collected the ball and threw it at the stumps in one motion and he eventually got out.
Speaking about the dismissal to BBC Cricket, McCullum added, “I don’t know if it’s anger but the unit is galvanised. There are times as a coach where you’ve got to reduce emotion because it’s going to bubble over and you can make poor decisions, but there’s times when you allow emotion to go because it’s going to galvanise the unit. That’s what I felt this emotion did for the side. I looked around the group and the guys were a little upset. If that helps us to win those key moments in the next Test, then I’m all for it.”
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However, people didn’t take it well as they booed the Australian team for the rest of the game, including during the presentation ceremony as well where Australia won the game as well. Meanwhile, Brendon McCullum remained confident about England winning the Ashes series despite facing a 0-2 deficit.
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“We’ve got to polish up a couple of the areas where the game has sat on a knife-edge and we haven’t been able to grab it. We do talk a lot about being able to absorb pressure, identifying when the time is to put pressure back on, being courageous enough to do so. There’s times when you will get it wrong, you can’t play the perfect game. All we will encourage guys to do is make the decisions that they feel are right at that point in time. I don’t think we are far away – the margins of the Test matches suggest that. We have to make sure morale stays high, the unit is galvanised and we adapt to conditions we are presented with at Headingley as quickly as we can. If we do that, we will give ourselves the best chance,” concluded Brendon McCullum.
