London: In response to England's outrage at Jonny Bairstow's stumping at Lord's, Pat Cummins advised them to evaluate their own actions and performances rather than invoke the cricketing gods.

The dismissal on the final day of the second Test, which Australia ultimately won by 43 runs despite an outstanding 155 from Ben Stokes, infuriated the home team. Since then, reaction has reached a fever pitch on both sides of the world, with the Prime Ministers of each country getting involved.

"For what I think is a pretty common non-event, it does seem like everyone has a pretty strong opinion about it," Cummins said. "I don't think there's any discussion; it's out. If the shoe was on the other foot, I wouldn't be looking at the opposition, I'd probably be thinking [about] our own batter, and would be thinking it's pretty silly."

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If England wants to win back the Ashes, they must become only the second team in history to rally from a 2-0 deficit. When asked if their response to Bairstow's firing was an attempt to distract from losses, Cummins avoided directly addressing the question but added how impressed he was with how his team handled the situation, from the initial moment and the confrontations in the Long Room to the 48 hours since, when the players themselves have remained silent unless specifically asked.

"I know what our team does, and that's [why] we concentrate on ourselves," he said. "When we haven't been playing up to scratch, we look pretty deeply at what we are doing, and try to make amends. We don't apportion blame to conditions or opposition or anything else going on. I'm really proud of how our boys have conducted themselves [on] this tour, especially on that day five. [I] thought the way they maintained respect for the opposition, the umpires [and] the crowd, their dignity was first-class.".

While England coach Brendon McCullum made reference to his own experience of controversially running Muthiah Muralidaran out, which he later apologized for, Stuart Broad tweeted that he feels Cummins will come to regret the choice not to withdraw the appeal. Speaking before the third Ashes Test at his home stadium, Headingley, Joe Root once more adopted that tone.

"I think Ben spoke very well on it at the end of the game. As a team, we want to play our cricket a certain way and want to leave a certain legacy," Root said. "As a player, you want to play the game as how you want to play it. It was within the rules; it was technically out. If you're happy with that, then fine. If not, I don't think you can [criticise] other people that play the game slightly differently."

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For his part, Cummins didn't think his opinion would alter. He laughed, "Maybe ask me in years to come." "In my opinion, a discussion of the spirit of cricket has no place in a dismissal like that. It was a stumping, plain and simple.

At Headingley, the site of England's miraculous Stokes-inspired victory in 2019, Cummins is anticipating a nasty response, but Australia's skipper believes that would have been the case regardless. He claimed that Australian crowds were among the worst in the world and that it was natural that players would suffer abuse from the general population, but assured that it has no effect on his team.

"People pay for their tickets, they can turn up… whilst I hope that I would never go to a sporting event and try to abuse players, [which] some people do," Cummins said. "I'm sure it'll be a pretty fiery week from the crowd. But again, we're on the field. I think in Australia, we're as guilty as anyone a lot of the time. So I think it's reality, to be honest.

"If you're going to play professional sport, unfortunately, that's one of the things that you're going to have to deal with. It's nothing new. I think you could talk about [it] till the cows come home, but I doubt it's going to make much of a difference."

While Root urged spectators to simply "support" England, he also seemed to warn against things getting out of hand.

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"I think that's the most important thing - that you come in to support your nation. [It] doesn't need to go beyond that," he said. "It shouldn't ever go beyond that. Everyone should be here to enjoy the cricket on the field. And, you know, that's what it should be about, and shouldn't be about anything other than that."

The Australia coach Andrew McDonald had called McCullum's remarks about the teams not having a beer "disappointing" and Cummins added that after the post-game presentation at Lord's, he had not spoken with Stokes again.

"I've got no problems at all with Baz," Cummins said, having himself worked with McCullum in the IPL. "I know how much he loves a beer, so that was surprising. Maybe we just see this one differently, which is totally fine."

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