“It wasn’t the way that I wanted to be out down at Lord’s,” Bairstow said of Australian wicketkeeper Alex Carey throwing down the stumps when the Yorkshireman left his crease believing it was the end of an over.
“It’s part and parcel with the game. We’ve seen it. In other occasions,I’ve even heard about it now in club cricket. That’s not necessarily what you want to be hearing as the example. When you look at young kids coming up,you want to be playing the game how I’ve always played it. You play it tough,you play it fair and on a different day,it doesn’t happen.”
Bairstow was clearly annoyed with the commentary surrounding his wicketkeeping. There have been calls for the man he replaced in this series,Ben Foakes,to return after Bairstow missed eight chances across the first three Tests. England could be leading the series 3-0 given Australia’s narrow victories at Edgbaston and Lord’s.
“You have got to have a bit of perspective,” he said. “I have not played in 10 months and not kept properly in three years so the two combined,there are going to be challenges.
“There has been a lot of talk,some of which I think has been out of order,to be honest. At the same time,that is part and parcel of people that have an opinion and that have a say. There has been times if people had a conversation with you individually and found out a bit more about the injury or the ankle and how everything is going they may have a slightly different view.
“From a personal point of view I got 80-odd in the first Test (a run-a-ball 78) and then it has only been two games,a drag-on and a dismissal at Lord’s that was an interesting one as well.