'We must applaud the game smarts' - Ravi Ashwin comes in support of Alex Carey amid Jonny Bairstow's controversial 'stumping' debate

Australia extended their lead in the ongoing Ashes 2023 series to 2-0 by winning the second Test at Lord's by 43 runs. Skipper Ben Stokes took the initiative on the last day to turn the game into yet another thriller, however despite scoring 155 runs, England's second innings collapsed for 327 when they were chasing a target of 371 runs to win.

There were several moments on the final day that grabbed attention of the viewers. While Stokes’ knock and Usman Khawaja’s heated argument with the MCC members in the Lord’s Long Room were something that people have been talking about, Jonny Bairstow’s controversial stumping in the first session on Day 5 sparked a debate between fans and also the experts of the game.

Social media has been buzzing ever since Bairstow’s dismissal, and questions have been raised over the ‘spirit of cricket’. During the first session, the wicketkeeper-batter was stumped on 10(22). The home supporters, especially the reputed MCC members, were outraged by the way he was dismissed, though.

Bairstow left the final delivery of the innings' 52^nd over and let the ball go to the wicketkeeper, and that is when the drama started to develop. Assuming the ball was dead, Bairstow left the crease and moved towards his captain who was at the other end, but Australian keeper Alex Carey had other ideas.

When Carey struck the stumps, Bairstow was spotted outside the crease, actually nowhere in the frame, and was thus adjudged stumped. While his wicket sparked a lot of debate and controversy, the ICC later issued a clarification on why the English keeper-batter was given out. Soon then, Indian all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin shared his opinion on the entire incident in one of his Tweets.

One of the Twitter users shared a video of the incident and said that those lauding Alex Carey were once criticizing Ravi Ashwin for running the batter at the non-striker’s end out, and termed it as ‘double standards’. Replying to him, Ashwin said:

“We must get one fact loud and clear. The keeper would never have a dip at the stumps from that far out in a test match unless he or his team have noticed a pattern of the batter leaving his crease after leaving a ball like Bairstow did. We must applaud the game smarts of the individual rather than skewing it towards unfair play or spirit of the game. #Ashes 2023.”