Australian captain Pat Cummins believes England’s outrage over Jonny Bairstow’s controversial dismissal could be an attempt to distract from the team’s performances.
Despite coming into the series full of momentum, England finds itself in a 0-2 hole and requiring three straight wins to reclaim the famous Ashes urn.
Discussion following the Lord’s Test has almost exclusively been about Alex Carey’s stumping of Bairstow on day five of the second Test, and Cummins admitted the incident could “potentially” be used as a smokescreen by the England camp.
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“I don’t think there’s any discussion (about Bairstow’s dismissal). It’s out,” Cummins said ahead of the third Test at Headingley.
“If the shoe was on the other foot, I wouldn’t be looking at the opposition, I’d probably be thinking about our own batter and would be thinking it’s pretty silly.”
The England camp has been outspoken about the incident, with coach Brendon McCullum and skipper Ben Stokes’ fighting words followed by comments from Stuart Broad, Joe Root and James Anderson.
Despite the criticism being levelled at his side, Cummins doesn’t have any doubts about the way Australia has played its cricket over the first two Tests.
“I know what our team does, and we concentrate on ourselves when we haven’t been playing up to scratch,” Cummins said.
“We look pretty deeply at what we do and try and make amends for it. We don’t apportion blame to conditions or opposition or anything else going on.
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“I’m really proud of the way our boys have conducted themselves this tour, especially on that day five (at Lord’s). I thought the way they maintained respect for the opposition, the umpires, the crowd, their dignity was first class.”
Australia is expected to face a hostile environment at Headingley starting on Thursday night AEST, but Cummins isn’t fazed by the prospect of more abuse.
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“I’m expecting the crowd to be pretty hostile, but I think that’d be the case no matter what happened,” he said.
“People pay for their tickets, they can turn up … whilst I hope that I would never go to a sporting event and try to abuse players, some people do.
“I’m sure it’ll be a pretty fiery week from the crowd, but again, we’re on the field. The crowd really doesn’t affect what we’re trying to do.”
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