Follow UsIt has been a couple of days since Australia's 43-run win against England in the second Ashes Test at Lord's. However, tempers are still flaring between the two sides on the controversial dismissal of Jonny Bairstow on the final day of the game.
Brendon McCullum, the Head Coach of the home team, is the latest member to get involved in the debate surrounding the dismissal and stated Australia will have to live with it in the upcoming three games.
"In the end, they made a play, and they've got to live with that. We would have made a different play, but that's life. In time, we'll see, but I get the feeling that it might have an effect on them," said McCullum, as quoted by Cricbuzz.
"I don't know if it's anger, but our 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."
"From our point of view, we believe that we can still come back in this series, and that's where our focus has got to be. What I will say is it's a galvanised unit up there, and we saw the fight from the skipper, Broady and the boys at the end there as well, which shows how much this means to the side."
"We'll lick our wounds and try to come back and rectify things. 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. 3-2 has a nice ring to it," he further added.
The former Kiwi skipper was also involved in a similar incident during his playing career when he dismissed Muttiah Muralitharan, who walked out of his crease to congratulate Kumar Sangakkara for his hundred.
"When I was a younger man, I didn't quite understand the significance of what the game and the spirit of the game meant. It's only with the benefit of time and experience that we were able to learn that and cherish it. In time, we'll see, but I get the feeling that it might have an effect on Australia."
"In the end, Australia won the Test match and fair play to them. It's just a shame that when you've got millions of people all around the world, and you've got a full house at Lord's, and you've everyone's eyeballs on this series, that for the next couple of days probably the most talked about aspect is going to be the dismissal and that's disappointing," McCullum added.
Despite being 0-2 down in the series, McCullum feels England have a couple of areas to work on as they step onto the field for the third clash on Thursday in Leeds.
"We always say that if we are winning and things are going great, you don't want to get too high, and if we are losing, you don't want to get too low either."
"We are on a path to where we want to get to and want to stick to that. Because a) it's fun, and b) I think it gives us our best chance. Albeit we are 2-0 down at the moment, I think it gives us our best chance of winning the series."
"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 knew coming into this series it was going to be tight, and there was going to be those moments."
"If we can do that, there's no reason why we can't bounce back. Morale is high and we've played some good cricket, amongst other things as well, and we look forward to the opportunity," he concluded.