Ashes: Jonny Bairstow defended by Dawid Malan after dismissal
Last updated on .From the section Cricket
England batsman Dawid Malan said he was surprised team-mate Jonny Bairstow did not employ a nightwatchman on day one of the fifth Ashes Test in Sydney.
Bairstow lasted just seven balls as Australia followed up their dismissal of Joe Root (83) with the new ball to leave England 233-5 at the close.
"It takes a lot of guts to go against what people normally do," said Malan, who ended the day unbeaten on 55.
"Perhaps he felt he was better suited to face the new ball."
Middlesex left-hander Malan added: "Some people like it and some people don't. I'll have a nightwatchman every time if there is an opportunity given to me."
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Debutant Mason Crane was padded up to act as nightwatchman, but England's policy is to allow the next batsman to make the decision on who goes in at the fall of a wicket.
The tourists had reached 220-3 when Australia took the second new ball with two overs of the day remaining.
Root clipped Starc to square leg for 83 and, after Bairstow opted to keep his spot at number six, he edged Josh Hazlewood behind.
"I was surprised," said Malan. "Each to their own. You can't look back. He didn't take one, he backed himself and he got out."
Australia all-rounder Mitchell Marsh also said that he would have opted for a nightwatchman had he been in Bairstow's position.
"I was very surprised," he said. "I've played three games this series and had Nathan Lyon padded up as nightwatchman about six times.
"We usually use one in the last 20 minutes. With a new ball, there's probably even more reason to send one out. I would have had the nightwatchman."
Australia have already secured the Ashes and are looking to deny England a first Test win in 10 attempts down under.
The late wickets in Sydney mean the tourists can attack the out-of-form Moeen Ali and the tourists' elongated tail with the new ball when play resumes at the earlier time of 23:00 GMT on Thursday.
"It was great to get the late rewards," added Marsh. "The ball is only two overs old, so hopefully we can go through them tomorrow."
Malan, though, believes England can still reach a total that would put them in a strong position.
"The position we were in both those last two overs, we would have been aiming for between 400 and 450," he said.
"The wickets have put us back a bit, but there's no reason why we can't get another 150 runs."
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Root is batting with Malan
Root gets out
Bairstow is in the dressing room with Bayliss, the "coach" the boss, the man running the show etc
And yet people are making up imaginary conversations with Root? Blaming Root like he was sat there in the dressing room?
Bayliss should be carrying the can for this pure and simple! This stuff is literally his job
If he thinks Jimmy, Broad or even Mo should go out and block it he should be telling the eager batsman to cool it!
Batsmen should want to bat, they should want to take responsibility, thats fine, I got no problem with that.
Problem is (once again) the appalling management!
Bairstow salvages zero pride or respect from 'having the guts to turndown a night watchman', and Malan has made himself sound silly implying it.
He and the team would get that by scoring 600 for 5 dec., then taking 20 wickets for 500.
Alternatively, if Jimmy had gone in and dead-batted a few tonight then a few overs tomorrow we might have got through the new ball and sneaked something closer to respectability.
What was Bayliss doing when this decision was made?
The real crime was Root getting out (predictably) in the first place. He is the one who should have been facing the last few balls, not Bairstow or Crane.
I'm sure he gets to 50 and thinks the pressure is off him- the 'I've done my bit' mentality. There are worse players than Root in world cricket making big contributions more often. He needs to step up, he is wasting his talent.
Promising position with 2 overs of the day to go, then poor discipline from specialist batsmen and in 20 minutes the position is lost and initiative handed back to Australia.
Do they let the players choose the batting lineup as well?
Bairstow's only faced 7 deliveries, so there was never going to be any benefit to him batting. The only possible reasons for him going out there were either sheer arrogance or to protect Crane, in which case someone else should have padded up! Either way, that mistake could cost us the match given the length of our tail.
That's also known as letting the lunatics run the asylum.