‘Wonder if big bad Mitch...’: Ben Stokes fuels war of words with Mitchell Johnson after ‘handshake’ jibe

Mitchell Johnson made an unsavoury remark on social media, involving Ben Stokes, after it was revealed England cricketers won’t shake hands with their counterparts in their upcoming two-match Test series against Sri Lanka.

England all-rounder Ben Stokes hit back at former Australia bowler Mitchell Johnson after the latter took a jibe at the ‘Three Lions’ recently. Johnson made an unsavoury remark on social media, involving Stokes, after it was revealed England cricketers won’t shake hands with their counterparts in their upcoming two-match Test series against Sri Lanka.

File image of Ben Stokes and Mitchell Johnson being separated by umpire Kumar Dharamsena (Getty Image)

Johnson referred to the infamous Bristol brawl to take a dig at Stokes, where the all-rounder was initially charged by the police before being acquitted. Johnson started the feud by writing in his Instagram story (as per Daily Telegraph): “Is this a p*** take? You can jam your fist pump England hahahaha just be careful though, Stokesy might react with a sucker punch.”

Stokes took note of this comment and responded by using England’s loyal fanbase Barmy Army’s infamous chant to get under the skin of Johnson during the 2009 Ashes series. Stokes’ Twitter post read: “Bowl’s to the left bowls to the right I wonder if big bad Mitch likes Marmite.”

Amid concerns related to coronavirus, skipper Joe Root stated his team will not go for fair play handshakes on their tour of Sri Lanka. The skipper stated that the players would be greeting each other with fist bumps instead. This came in the aftermath of England players being hit by gastroenteritis and flu problems on their tour of South Africa recently.

“After the illnesses that swept through the squad in South Africa, we are well aware of the importance of keeping contact to a minimum and we’ve been given some really sound and sensible advice from our medical team to help prevent spreading germs and bacteria,” Root was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.

“We are not shaking hands with each other, using instead the well-established fist bump, and we are washing hands regularly and wiping down surfaces using the anti-bacterial wipes and gels we’ve been given in our immunity packs.”