'Spirit of Cricket' Takes a Major Twist as Joe Root Admits Jonny Bairstow's Ashes 2023 Stumping Was Legal

Joe Root opened up about his take on the Jonny Bairstow stumping in Ashes 2023, (Image: AFP)

In the 2023 edition of the Ashes, Jonny Bairstow’s stumping in the second Test at Lord’s was the highlight of the historic five-match Test series. The batter had stepped out early after the delivery which prompted the keeper, Alex Carey to enforce the stumping and the dismissal sparked debates on whether the Aussies upheld the ‘Spirit of Cricket’.

But now in the documentary series titled The Ashes 2023: Our Take, England’s ace batter, Joe Root has revealed his take on the whole situation and surprisingly felt that the dismissal was indeed a legal one.

“Initially I was quite angry, but I think when you’re involved in the game it’s very difficult to put yourself in the other position,” Root commented.

“At the end of the day, it’s within the laws of the game. You should be aware as a player. Jonny will hate me saying this, but if you stay in your crease you can’t get given out can you?” he added.

Fellow English teammate, Moeen Ali who had come out of retirement for the Ashes series also felt that Bairstow had the habit of leaving the crease too early.

Meanwhile Moeen comments: “I always felt Jonny leaves his crease so early, he leaves the ball and just walks straight down, and I always felt he leaves early,” he added.

In the aftermath of the dismissal, the England captain, Ben Stokes even went on to question Australia’s ‘Spirit of Cricket,’ a term that seems to resurface every time a team does not like how a certain instance has gone about.

If the shoe was on the other foot I would have put more pressure on the umpires and asked whether they had called over and had a deep think about the whole spirit of the game and would I want to do something like that. For Australia, it was the match-winning moment. Would I want to win a game in that manner? The answer for me is no,” Ben Stokes commented following that dismissal.

Bairstow currently is out of the Test squad after a poor show in the India tour. England will take on the West Indies next which begins on July 10 at the Lord’s Cricket Ground.