VIDEO | Jonny Bairstow fools Steve Smith twice in two days by changing his shot at very last moment

Bairstow is going through a very rough patch in his career and the only thing that could save his career from reaching the nadir was a good score here. In order to get that count, Bairstow looked fully determined today and his first drive to cover oozed confidence of highest order, although it didn’t yield any runs.

His shot against Nathan Lyon on the second delivery of the 66th over was particularly revealing. Lyon bowled a full ball wide outside of off-stump and Bairstow first thought of sweeping it. However, he changed his thought at the last moment as he opened his bat and squeezed the ball past slip. 

Smith was fielding at slip and he first thought the English keeper would sweep that and stood at his position without any thoughts. But Bairstow’s cheeky check put him in a spot of bother as the ball eventually came to him, leaving him completely clueless. 

The former Australian skipper missed that but the funniest part was yet to come. He literally yelled at and blamed Bairstow for fooling him twice in two days. This was as funny a moment as we've seen in this Ashes thus far.