‘We didn’t know’: England’s Ashes declaration takes Bairstow by surprise

Jonny Bairstow said he had no inkling that Ben Stokes was considering the surprise declaration that ended England’s innings on 393 for eight, caused chaotic scenes in the dressing room and left Australia’s openers with an awkward 20 minutes to see out at the end of first day of the Ashes series, one they successfully negotiated to reach 14 without loss.

“We didn’t know anything about it,” Bairstow said. “I’m sure he had a couple of conversations with Brendon [McCullum] and the bowlers, but one of them was out in the middle so there can’t have been too many people who knew about it and I definitely didn’t. It was a scramble to get the tape on, the pads on and the rest. But when you’re not expecting something, sometimes it’s the best form of attack. It’s a shot to nothing, isn’t it? We come back tomorrow with a ball that’s four overs old, a fresh bowling attack and a team that’s really looking forward to the challenge.”

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In the over before the declaration Joe Root, who ended the innings unbeaten on 118, hit two sixes off Nathan Lyon. “Once Joe got his hundred and played a few shots I sensed it was coming,” Josh Hazlewood said, adding that Australia had been happy with how they had countered England’s aggressive batting. “It’s good to play [against] a different brand of cricket, although I don’t think we got dragged into it as much as we could have if things went really south. We’ll learn throughout the series but we’ll stick to what we’ve been doing the last two years – it’s obviously working.”

Bairstow scored 78 off 78 balls in his first innings for England since the serious leg injury he sustained last year, and together with Root dragged England from a perilous 176 for five to 297 for six. “There were a few nerves knocking about but when I found my flow and got into the battle it was really enjoyable to be back out there,” he said. “There was excitement at being back on the big stage, at the big dance, playing in a home Ashes series.

“You remember those tricky times you went through, the dark days when the sun goes down at half three. Those times are the ones you look back on and think, I’m pleased I did the graft to enable me to be back in this position, out there in the middle in the first Ashes Test and having a bit of fun.”