Ashes villain Jonny Bairstow ready for BBL stint with Melbourne Renegades

England’s Jonny Bairstow is ready to bury the hatchet with Australian cricket fans as the Ashes villain joins the Melbourne Renegades for the upcoming Big Bash season. The 37-year-old joins former captain Ben Stokes and discarded England opener Zak Crawley in descending on the BBL this summer.

Bairstow has signed a deal with the Renegades reportedly worth more than $400,000 for the season, and the ex-Bazballer is prepared to have a target on his back from Australian crowds. Bairstow has been mocked heavily on these shores since Alex Carey stumped him after he wandered out of his crease in the Lord’s Test of the 2023 Ashes.

“But that was three years ago now, there’s a lot of water that’s passed under the bridge,” Bairstow told cricket.com.au. “It’s obviously still talked about, which is something that you can look back on in Ashes series gone by and there’s always bits that are talked about and that will continue to be the case over a long period of time … I’m sure it will be taken in the right way.”

In a separate interview with News Corp, Bairstow added: “The reception will probably be quite fun at times. It’s not something that being an Englishman you’re averse to when you’re over in Oz. So yeah, it’ll be great fun.” Bairstow missed last summer’s Ashes because he was dropped from the England Test side following their 2024 tour of India, playing his 100th and last Test in Dharamsala.

The right-hander played in three Ashes series in Australia before that, facing a rampaging Mitchell Johnson during the whitewash of 2013/14 before scoring defiant centuries at the WACA in 2017 and the SCG in 2022. “There’s been some great battles, hasn’t there, over many years, in all formats,” Bairstow said.

“Australian fans enjoy people that get stuck in and are very passionate about playing cricket and want to win, and that’s something wholeheartedly I can say that I’ve done over my career,” Bairstow added. He has not played for England in any format since their loss to India in the semi-final of the 2024 T20 World Cup.

Bairstow’s connection to Victorian cricket led to him joining the Renegades to fill the void left by New Zealand’s Tim Seifert. With the Renegades leaving Marvel Stadium this season, Bairstow will finally get the chance to call the MCG home.

“To call the MCG my home ground is great,” Bairstow said. “In 2013, there were 91,092 in on day one of the Boxing Day Test. It was absolutely epic. Of sporting stadiums around the world that you want to play in, that’s definitely in the top few.”