Ashes 2017-18: 6 Controversies from the marquee series Down Under

#5 Jonny Bairstow “headbutts” Cameron Bancroft

Cameron Bancroft said he "expected a handshake or a hug, not a headbutt" from Jonny Bairstow

During the first day of the series itself, reports from the Australian media emerged that England's Jonny Bairstow had greeted Australian debutant Cameron Bancroft with a “headbutt” in a bar in Perth. The incident happened after Bancroft's domestic side Western Australia were celebrating a victory there when the England team arrived to have a few drinks just hours after landing in Australia.

As some members of both the teams knew each other already, there was a friendly meeting between the players, in which Bairstow greeted Bancroft with a sideways headbutt.

"It was really weird and random. I expected a handshake or a hug, not a headbutt,” Bancroft said in his first press conference as an international cricketer after Australia trumped England by 10 wickets in Brisbane. Just a month before England's arrival, there was the Ben Stokes brawl that the ECB had to deal with, and just a day into the series, Bairstow further raised some eyebrows.