The Australian players who played in the 2023 Ashes recalled their time in the lunchroom during the Lord’s Test soon after Jonny Bairstow had been stumped in a controversial manner by Alex Carey.

Chasing 371 to level the series, England’s hopes in the second Ashes 2023 Test at Lord’s suffered a major blow when Alex Carey stumped Jonny Bairstow after the latter had assumed the ball was dead and had wandered out of his crease.

The furore over the incident has gone on. Neither team is ready to budge from their respective stances, nor are their respective communities. Pat Cummins recently pointed out that the dismissal was good for the sport, as it got so many people invested in the game.

While most takes around the incident have been of a serious nature, some Australians involved in the series could see the funny side of it when they sat for lunch with the English team during the lunch break on the fifth day of the Lord’s Test, soon after the stumping.

Speaking on Seven Cricket’s show with The Grade Cricketer, they talked about what transpired in the lunchroom that day. Marnus Labuschagne said that he was right next to Bairstow, who was not amused over the incident: “I was in the lunchroom. Jonny was steaming. Absolutely steaming! Like he walked in the lunch room and didn’t have lunch.”

Labuschagne then narrated an incident that got the Australians laughing. He said, “The Sky crew (broadcasters) knew that Jonny was in there and they just replayed it on the screen (in the lunchroom). And as you do, everyone’s watching. Obviously seeing us all watch, he’s like, ‘Are you guys happy with that?’ Dave Warner’s spitting out his chicken… spitting out his chicken and goes… ‘Yeah. Very.’ The only word (he) said.”

When asked how Warner’s comment was received by others in the room, Mitchell Marsh and Travis Head recalled how they had to control their laughter.

“Remember at school when the teacher tells you off and you shouldn’t be laughing?” said Marsh. “Well, I was trying to eat my soup. So if you can imagine, I’m eating my soup and I’m shaking like this [in an attempt to control laughter] and I’m like just trying to look down and I look up at Jonny and be like [imitates controlling a laugh]. I had pumpkin soup coming down my whites!”

Head couldn’t help but join in on the fun: “I had my back turned to Jonny, but I could imagine Jonny looking at us. And when David said, ‘Very’, me and a few others get the [imitates shoulders shaking due to laughter]. He would have seen three shoulders puckering with their heads down.”

Marsh and Khawaja added that the Australian were not the only ones who saw the funny side of things. Some English players had joined in as well. “I reckon I could see a few of them laughing. They loved it,” said Marsh.

“I walked out with a couple of the English boys and they were giggling,” added Khawaja. “He [Bairstow] still hasn’t eaten anything. He sat the whole time. So I’ve finished up and left and Jonny hadn’t touched anything! I’m like, ‘This is strange!'”

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