ENGLAND’S Jonny Bairstow reckons he was ‘stitched up’ by the Australians in his notorious headbutt ‘greeting’ to Gloucestershire’s Cameron Bancroft.

The controversy emerged when the Aussies teased Bairstow about the headbutt during the second Ashes Test only for it to be picked-up by the stump microphone at the crease to be shared globally through the media.

The pair are due to lock horns again on Thursday when England look to get back into the Ashes Series with a win at The WACA, Perth. They are currently trailing 2-0 in the best of five Test series.

Bairstow said the headbutt was just a way of saying ‘hello’ to the Gloucestershire star batsman, although Bancroft said the incident, which happened in a Perth nightclub before the Ashes Series began, was ‘bizarre’.

Bairstow, writing in a column for the Daily Mail, said: “A headbutt, to me, is something that has malicious intent. The reality is that it was nothing. (It was) boys being boys ... there was minimal contact, I can tell you that.

"Did I feel as if I had been stitched up? Yes I did in many ways.

"But at the same time, I honestly never thought of it as anything to worry about.

"I knew I hadn't done anything wrong and, more importantly, the team and management knew that too.”

And Bairstow said the Aussies had sledged him more than simply trying to wind him up, a common practice when the opposition are batting.

He added: “It did get to me a bit when they started sledging me, because I didn't know what they were talking about.

"But I can honestly say the shot I got out to in the second innings had nothing to do with it. I (just) played a bad shot."

"Australia, as they have admitted, were trying to use it to get under my skin."

Meanwhile, Gloucestershire have taken an interesting approach to pre-season training.

Their strength and conditioning coach Bob Smith has looked for new ways to train the team ahead of a busy summer in 2018 and has now starting using Hot Yoga.

Smith said: “We have been practicing hot yoga in 35-plus degrees, working on aspects of flexibility, balance, strength and control.

“There’s no doubt that the work has been challenging but the real benefit for me is in working with Ed, the owner of Yogafurie in Bristol, to target some very specific aspects of yoga that we can capitalise on in our training.”