Ashes: Bairstow and Bancroft talk ‘Nutgate’ as off-field incident takes centre stage

(Picture: Getty Images)

England may have lost the opening Test of this Ashes series, but any inquest into the tourists’ ten-wicket defeat at Brisbane was quickly sidelined as talk turned to the use of heads off the pitch rather than the loss of them on it.

‘Nutgate’ is the name being given to Jonny Bairstow’s ‘headbutt’ on Australian opener Cameron Bancroft in a Perth bar at the start of the tour, and the subsequent media storm, after the story broke late on Sunday night.

The incident has taken on such a life of its own that the press conferences following Australia’s triumph focussed on the nuts and bolts of Bairstow’s noggin-usage rather than the the preceding five days play.

Owner of said noggin Bairstow was first to give his take on ‘Nutgate’, with the English batsman solemnly addressing the assembled media without taking questions.

“I caught up with one of my friends and we went and caught up with some of the Western Australia guys after they’d just beaten Tasmania,” he said.

“We were in the bar having a good laugh and a good evening out. Cameron and I enjoyed the evening and continued to do so.

“There was no intent nor malice about anything during the evening. As you could see out there today, there’s no animosity between myself, Cameron and any other of the Australian players.”

England head coach Trevor Bayliss and skipper Joe Root then stepped in, with the former lamenting another one of his players opening himself up to criticism – “we’ve just got to be smarter” – and the latter more notably playing down the whole incident.

“It was joshing about, boyish behaviour,” said Root. “It’s obviously disappointing that we have given them something to bring up but it’s come up on the first day Australia have had a good one on the field, four weeks later.

“If it was a big deal it would have come out a lot earlier, and we need to be careful not to make a big deal out of something that’s not there.”

Standard fare, then, from the tourists, but the whole thing really kicked into gear when Aussie opener Bancroft took his turn, alongside skipper Steve Smith, to face the media.

The 25-year-old debutant echoed Bairstow’s claims that there was no malice involved, before hilariously venturing into more detail about the specifics of ‘Nutgate’. Settle in, this one is worth a watch…

Bancroft, on the back of a debut 82*, will not have pictured his first post Test press call being dominated by having to forensically dissect Bairstow’s overly-friendly introduction, or what actually constitutes a headbutt…

One Test down, four to go, in what is already turning out to be quite a weird Ashes series.