Pat Cummins came up with a cheeky response when he was asked whether there’ll be more Mankads and under-arm bowling from Australia in the Ashes in his post-match press conference after the Lord’s Test match.

The stumping of Jonny Bairstow by Alex Carey on the fifth morning of the second Ashes Test at Lord’s has given rise to a heated debate around the Spirit of Cricket.

While some believe Bairstow was hard done by, and that Australia should have withdrawn the appeal as it was against the spirit of the game, others have come out and appreciated Carey for his presence of mind and argued that Bairstow was out by the rule of law and that is what should matter.

Cummins, who was attending the press conference after the match, was faced with a similar question about the spirit of the game from one of the journalists. He was first asked if he believed in the existence of the Spirit of Cricket, to which he replied in the affirmative.

“Pat, is there such a thing, or do you believe in such a thing as Spirit of Cricket?” asked the journalist. “Yep,” was Cummins’ short and to-the-point response.

The follow-up question turned out to be more interesting: “Do you think that after Bairstow’s dismissal today which was within the letter of the Law, no disputing that, but are we in danger of seeing Mankads or underarm bowling later on this series?”

After a brief pause, Cummins came up with a cheeky reply, leading to a fit of laughter in the room: “Ah.. I mean, depends how flat the wickets get. It might be an option to turn to.”

While Cummins’ response might have been in jest, it probably originates from the fact that both the surfaces on offer in this series so far – at Edgbaston and Lord’s – have been largely docile with not much help for the bowlers.

The third Test is to be played at Headingley in Leeds. Cummins & co., much like the English bowling attack, will hope to have something more to play with than they have had at Edgbaston and Lord’s.

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