Root: We won't Stoop To Aussie Style Verbals

ENGLAND captain Joe Root has warned Australia that their glee at manipulating the Jonny Bairstow ‘head-butt’ incident following the Brisbane Test will give his team all the motivation they need to level the series in Adelaide.

- Chris Stocks

The home side’s sledging of Bairstow at the Gabba – centred on the head-butt greeting he gave Australia opener Cameron Bancroft in a Perth bar during the first week of the tour – was picked up on the stump mic and led to a media storm that forced England into imposing a midnight curfew on their players.

Although all sides admit there was no malicious intent from Bairstow, Australia were quick to make capital out of the incident in a way that has irked Root and the rest of the tour party.

The sight of Australia captain Steve Smith laughing uncontrollably as Bancroft, sat beside him in the post-match Press conference at the Gabba, recounted the incident in minute detail sat uncomfortably with England, adding insult to their 10wicket defeat in the first Test.

And Root insists it will be a driving motivation for his team to turn the tables on the Australians in the day-night Test in Adelaide.

“Well if that’s not motivation to the players I don’t know what is,” he said. “You look at the end of the game and you are obviously very disappointed but to see a reaction like that in a Press conference…