[Watch] “All of them had food except Jonny” - Aussie cricketers hilariously recreate lunch room scenes after Bairstow’s stumping at Lord’s
A few of the Australian cricketers who featured in Ashes 2023 hilariously recreated awkward scenes in the lunch room that played out following Jonny Bairstow’s controversial dismissal during the Lord’s Test. The players revealed that a seething Bairstow did not have lunch, but added that the English players too had a bit of fun at the expense of their keeper-batter.
Bairstow was dismissed for 10 in a somewhat contentious fashion on Day 5 of the Lord’s Test. He left a ball from Cameron Green and ambled out of his crease, thinking the ball was dead. But Australian keeper Alex Carey threw down the stumps. The on-field umpires did not consider the ball dead and Bairstow had to walk back to the pavilion.
England went on to lose the Test by 43 runs and Bairstow’s dismissal snowballed into a major controversy, with the home team questioning Australia’s sportsman spirit. The Aussies, however, defended themselves and stated they played by the rules.
In an interaction with 7Cricket, a number of Australian cricketers came up with a tongue-in-cheek version of what transpired in the lunch room at Lord’s following Bairstow’s dismissal. Have a read.
Marnus Labuschagne: I was in the lunch room. Jonny was steaming. Absolutely steaming. Like he was in the lunch room and didn’t have lunch. Like the Sky crew knew that Jonny was in there and they just replayed it on the screen. And as you do, everyone’s watching. Obviously, seeing us all watch, he’s like ‘are you guys happy with that?’ Dave Warner’s spitting out his chicken and goes, ‘yeah, very’. The only word said.
Usman Khawaja: All of them had food in front of them except Jonny Bairstow. I was thinking, that’s a little bit odd. I walked out with a couple of English boys and they were giggling. He (Bairstow) still hasn’t eaten anything. He sat the whole time. So, I’ve finished up and left and Jonny hadn’t touched anything.
Mitchell Marsh: Remember at school when the teacher tells you off and you shouldn’t be laughing. Well, I was trying to eat my soup, so if you can imagine, I am eating my soup and I am shaking like this, and I am like just trying to look down and I look up at Jonny and be… I had pumpkin soup coming down my whites. (Did the English boys find it funny?) See, yes. I reckon I could see a few of them laughing. They loved it.
Travis Head: I had my back turned to Jonny, but I could imagine Jonny looking at us and when David said ‘very’, me and a few others get the (shoulder shakes). He would have seen three shoulders puckering with their heads down.
England came back strongly after losing the first two Tests to level the five-match Ashes series 2-2.
Jonny Bairstow lets his bat do the talking
Following the Lord’s controversy, Bairstow lifted himself and played a couple of defining knocks in the last two Ashes 2023 Tests.
He smashed 99* off 81 balls in the fourth Test in Manchester and 78 off 103 balls in the final Test at The Oval, which England won by 49 runs.