England head coach Brendon McCullum believes the controversial dismissal of Jonny Bairstow on Day 5 of the second Ashes Test at Lord’s will only “galvanise” the hosts as they look to win the crucial third Test, starting on July 6 at Headingley, Leeds.
On the final day of the second Ashes Test, Bairstow, under the assumption that the ball had been declared dead and the over had ended, unintentionally vacated his crease as wicketkeeper Alex Carey launched a throw towards the stumps, resulting in his dismissal.
The dismissal proved to be a game-changer, as the hosts were defeated by 43 runs to fall into a 0-2 deficit in the best-of-five series.
“I don’t know if it’s anger but the unit is galvanised. There are times as a coach where you’ve got to reduce emotion because it’s going to bubble over and you can make poor decisions, but there’s times when you allow emotion to go because it’s going to galvanise the unit,” McCullum was quoted by BBC.
“That’s what I felt this emotion did for the side. I looked around the group and the guys were a little upset. If that helps us to win those key moments in the next Test, then I’m all for it,” he added.
McCullum further expressed his confidence that England can still win the series despite facing a 0-2 deficit.
“3-2 has a nice ring to it. We’ve got to polish up a couple of the areas where the game has sat on a knife-edge and we haven’t been able to grab it. We do talk a lot about being able to absorb pressure, identifying when the time is to put pressure back on, being courageous enough to do so.”
“There’s times when you will get it wrong, you can’t play the perfect game. All we will encourage guys to do is make the decisions that they feel are right at that point in time. I don’t think we are far away – the margins of the Test matches suggest that.
“We have to make sure morale stays high, the unit is galvanised and we adapt to conditions we are presented with at Headingley as quickly as we can. If we do that, we will give ourselves the best chance,” he said.