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Jonny Bairstow blasts critics who are "waiting for England to fail" at the World Cup 2019
England find themselves in a pressure situation, needing to win both their remaining games to qualify for the semis after three defeats already in the CWC 2019. They take on India on Sunday
England opener Jonny Bairstow has lashed out at critics who are waiting for his team to fail in the World Cup 2019. Ahead of England's crucial game against India at Edgbaston, Bairstow stated that, "it is a typical English thing to do, in every sport."
The cricketer was responding to comments by former players from the country, Kevin Pietersen and Michael Vaughan, after England lost their second successive game on the trot, when they went down to Australua by 64 runs on Tuesday. They had earlier lost to Sri Lanka. It was their third loss in the edition, with their first defeat coming against Pakistan.
The team were the hot favourites for the title before the World Cup started, and they now need to win both their remaining games if they want to qualify for the semis., Anything else, and they will be hoping that other results go their way.
Pietersen had taken to Twitter to accuse skipper Eoin Morgan of looking "scared" when facing Australia's fast bowlers, while Vaughan told BBC radio that this was a "turmoil." “This is looking like turmoil for England. I’ve been involved in a couple of atrocious World Cups. If they’re not careful, this could turn out to be top of the tree.”
Asked whether Pietersen’s tweet had annoyed him, Bairstow responded: “I’ve not even seen it, to be quite honest. I was on the radio this morning; I was surprised with a clip of Vaughan’s comments at 8.30am. Bloody hell. That’s pretty rich.
“People now are paid to have an opinion, so they’ve got to have an opinion. Because we’ve done so well, any opportunity for someone to see we’ve lost two games, they were always going to jump on it. People were waiting for us to fail. They are not willing us on to win, in many ways they are waiting for you to get that loss, so they can jump on your throat. It’s a typical English thing to do, in every sport.”
Bairstow also revealed that he was sledged by a taxi driver in London after the loss to Australia.
“I chuckled,” he admitted. “Of course people are going to say things. Of course they are. Everyone’s saying like [it’s] as if we’re eighth or ninth in the table. Bloody Nora: chill out guys. You’re panicking.”
He also went on to attack the pitches that are being used for the World Cup.
“The pitches that we’ve been playing on the last two years are surely the pitches we [should] be playing on in a World Cup,” he said, “so I don’t know why they’ve changed.
“That wasn’t a typical Oval wicket we played South Africa on in the opening game. It wasn’t a typical Trent Bridge wicket we played Pakistan on. It wasn’t a typical Lord’s wicket that we played the other day. They’re not the typical wickets we’ve been playing on over two and a bit years. That’s just factual. But I’m not making excuses, we’ve not played well enough to beat sides when we should have done. We know that.”
