Bairstow urged to use Lord's controversy as fuel at home

England want Jonny Bairstow to use his contentious Lord's dismissal as fuel for his home Ashes Test in which the fiery wicketkeeper will be saddled with even more responsibility due to Ben Stokes’ faltering confidence in his body.

The England captain confirmed his chronic knee injury, and the "worst-case scenario" of him not being fit to bowl in their must-win Headingley Test, was a factor in England's shake-up of their XI that has seen them strengthen their bowling at the expense of a specialist batter.

It has also seen Bairstow, who teammates have indicated is still seething at being stumped in the second Test when he wandered out of his crease thinking the end of the over had been called, promoted to No.5 while maintain his wicketkeeping duties.

Jimmy Anderson wrote in his column for the UK Telegraph that Bairstow had "made his opinions clear in the dressing room", while his former skipper Joe Root said that "Jonny does thrive off things like this".

It fits in with Stokes' edict to his charges to use whatever motivation they need to fire themselves up against Australia, essentially signalling the green light for the combative Bairstow to channel his simmering discontent. 

The stumping that sparked a firestorm of controversy, but which Australia have been unapologetic for, surely was a discussion point when Bairstow had a lengthy mid-pitch conversation with the third Test's match officials during England's match-eve training session.

Bairstow will have the added comfort of a Leeds crowd that is certain to reserve its loudest cheers for the born-and-bred Yorkshireman who grew up less than half-an-hour away in nearby Bradford.

"Jonny's fine," said Stokes. "But I said before we started at training that whatever you need to do to get the best out of yourselves as individuals, just do it. Certain individual will have different things to do that.

"We've seen in the past with Jonny, particularly around any criticism of himself, he's always managed to do something.

"Whether he uses the incident as some kind of inspiration to get the best out of himself this week, who knows? That's what I said to each individual – do what you need to do to get yourself up for this week."

This Australian side are loathe to play on emotion, though many of the team that will play this week will recall how they used Bairstow's temperament against him during the 2017-18 Ashes when he was sledged about a harmless nightclub headbutt of then opener Cameron Bancroft.

Bairstow then made light of the incident in Perth when he celebrated one of just three England centuries for the tour by miming a headbutt of his own helmet, suggesting the overblown affair had made him "more determined to succeed".

England hope that is the case again this week, though they will have their fingers crossed that putting him up to the number five spot he so enjoyed last northern summer does not physically drain a 33-year-old who only recovered from a broken leg a few months ago.

Bairstow had a golden run with the bat in the early few Tests of the Bazball era last year, monstering bowlers from New Zealand and India with a remarkable run in which he peeled off scores of 136, 8, 71no, 162, 114no and 106 in consecutive innings.

Tellingly, however, he did not stand behind the stumps in any of those matches, with Ben Foakes preferred as keeper. England elected not to recall Foakes, regarded as the world's premier pure gloveman, for this match.

That's despite Bairstow missing four chances in the first Test at Edgbaston, which arguably cost England a Test that Australia won by only two wickets, and despite a top-order spot opening up with Ollie Pope's series-ending shoulder injury.

"He was batting in the nets yesterday and I just walked up to him and said you're batting five," said Stokes. "That's where he performed his miracles last summer.

"Jonny is someone who wants to get into the game, and we feel that he offers his best things to the team when he is in the game early.

"Keping and batting down at seven has been a different role to what he had last summer.

"The things he did last summer batting at number five were incredible.

"Yes he is keeping (now), but he's a superstar and the quicker we can get him into the game with the bat, the better off it is for him as an individual and the better off we are as a team."

2023 Qantas Ashes Tour of the UK

First Test: Australia won by two wickets

Second Test: Australia won by 43 runs

Third Test: Thursday July 6-Monday July 10, Headingley

Fourth Test: Wednesday July 19-Sunday July 23, Old Trafford

Fifth Test: Thursday July 27-Monday 31, The Oval

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, David Warner

England squad: Ben Stokes (c), Rehan Ahmed, James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood