Wednesday 17 January 2018 10:04, UK
Jonny Bairstow has laughed off suggestions England won the first one-day international of the series because Australia's Ashes celebrations went too far.
At the start of the tour, England found themselves fending off questions over a drinking culture in their cricket set-up, with Bairstow's 'headbutt' on Cameron Bancroft and Ben Duckett's suspension for an incident with James Anderson in a Perth bar among the headlines.
But reports in Australian local media have suggested the hosts' party in Sydney after their 4-0 Ashes win went too far and contributed to their five-wicket defeat in the first ODI of the five-match series on Sunday.
"Jeez, if you can't celebrate winning the Ashes I am not sure what you can celebrate other than your wedding or something like that," said Bairstow.
"So they should. You can't just say because they have lost the first game that it's a result of celebrating the Ashes. It's a different squad, lots of different people."
He also made reference to the curfew imposed by the Test squad that remains in place for the white-ball side.
"I am sure if it was the other way round [celebrations] would have been exactly the same - before midnight, of course," Bairstow added.
Australia batsman David Warner also dismissed the issue, saying: "You've got to celebrate your wins.
"It was a long summer for us and to play the way we did, beating England 4-0, we deserve to go out and celebrate.
"If people think it's over the top then that's their own opinion. You get one day to sum up a summer and I think we did it in the right sense."
The teams meet again at the Gabba on Friday and Bairstow knows the visitors are likely to face some backlash from Australia, after their first defeat of the tour.
"We know the feeling of being 1-0 down so that's something we're expecting - a bit of a backlash from the Aussies," Bairstow said.
"But you'd rather be 1-0 up. We really pleased to get the first proper win since we arrived. It's a huge achievement for the lads to start the one-day series the way that we did.
"To carry on playing the way that we have done over the last 18-months, two years, in Australia is something we were really wanting to do and to start the series like we have, we can hopefully continue that in Brisbane."
