"Your Job As A Batsman...": Ex-Australia Skipper's Blunt Remark On Jonny Bairstow's Incident

Former Australian captain Mark Taylor has reminded cricketers that if stumping is one of the modes of dismissals permitted by the laws of the game then it's entirely the batsman's responsibility to guard his wicket. England batter Jonny Bairstow's dismissal on the final day of the second Ashes Test at Lord's has brought stumping into focus again with discussion about spirit of the game overriding the rules of cricket. On the final day of the second Test, Bairstow ducked a slow bouncer from Australia's Cameron Green and walked out of the crease, thinking that the ball was already 'dead'.

However, wicketkeeper Alex Carey broke the stumps with a direct throw and third umpire Marais Erasmus adjudged it stumped.

"The batsmen have to remember there are 10 ways to get out in Test cricket. One of them is by being stumped, and it doesn't say in the laws it has to be off a slow bowler. If you're going to wander out of your crease doing whatever you want to do, be mindful that you can be stumped," Taylor in his column for Sydney Morning Herald.

"So, your job as a batsman is to get back in your crease until the ball is dead." Taylor said the mode of dismissal has been legitimate since the time he has known and played the game, adding that he had "no issues" with what Australia skipper Pat Cummins and his team did at the moment in time.

"I've got no issue at all with what Pat Cummins and the Australian team did during the last day of the Lord's Test when they stumped Jonny Bairstow.

"It's a legitimate form of dismissal and has been as long as I've known the game of cricket. I've seen many wicketkeepers throwing the ball towards the stumps to try and claim an unsuspecting batsman's wicket." Taylor said just two days before Bairstow's