As England chased victory on the final day at Lord's, Bairstow ducked under a delivery from Cameron Green and mistakenly left his crease, assuming the end of the over had been called. However, Alex Carey's quick thinking led to a direct hit on the stumps, leaving Bairstow perplexed. The third umpire ultimately ruled him out, leading to contrasting reactions from the two teams.
Cummins defended the dismissal as a straightforward stumping and emphasized the need to focus on their own team's performance rather than engaging in blame games.
Pat Cummins maintained that a discussion about the spirit of cricket was irrelevant in this instance. He firmly believed it was a simple stumping and expressed surprise at the intense opinions surrounding the incident. Cummins emphasized that if the roles were reversed, his focus would be on his own team's player rather than blaming the opposition.
"I don't think a conversation about the spirit of cricket even comes into a dismissal like that. It was plain and simple a stumping," the Australian captain said. "For what I think is a pretty common non-event, it does seem like everyone has a pretty strong opinion about it. I don't think there's any discussion; it's out. 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."
"I know what our team does, and that's [why] we concentrate on ourselves. When we haven't been playing up to scratch, we look pretty deeply at what we are doing, and try to make amends. We don't apportion blame to conditions or opposition or anything else going on," Cummins added.
Despite facing constant boos from the crowd and confrontations from members in the Long Room at Lord's, Cummins praised his team for maintaining composure and respect throughout the match. He commended their dignified behavior towards the opposition, umpires, and the crowd, showcasing their professionalism even in the face of adversity.
"I'm really proud of how our boys have conducted themselves [on] this tour, especially on that day five. [I] thought the way they maintained respect for the opposition, the umpires [and] the crowd, their dignity was first-class," Cummins said.
Cummins acknowledged the disagreement with Brendon McCullum, who suggested that the relationship between the two teams would be affected and expressed his unwillingness to share post-match beers with the Australians.
"I've got no problems at all with Baz," Cummins said. “I know how much he loves a beer, so that was surprising. Maybe we just see this one differently, which is totally fine.”
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