Former Aussie greats Ricky Ponting and Matthew Hayden have taken aim at Ollie Robinson for his conduct in the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston.
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Robinson was at the centre of “the theatre of the Ashes” in Birmingham as England succumbed to a two-wicket defeat in one of the greatest Ashes Tests of all time.
Having toiled away in the first innings without much success, Robinson’s frustration came out as he dismissed Usman Khawaja with a unique plan after the opener had made 141. Robinson gave him a send-off and seemingly said “f*** off, you f***ing p***k” in his direction.
This act was met with criticism from the Australian media. However, Robinson defended himself at stumps. He gave the example of how Ponting, among others, used to do the similar things and that this was just a case of “the boot being on the other foot”.
Robinson had also spoken about how Australia have “three No.11s once they get past Cummins” after England had dismissed their tail cheaply first innings. However, the same lower order crafted a tense victory for Australia as Cummins, Nathan Lyon, and Scott Boland combined to score 80 runs.
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Following Australia’s victory, both Ponting and Hayden have come out in severe criticism of Robinson. Ponting called him a “slow learner” while Hayden has said that he’s a “forgettable cricketer.”
Speaking on the ICC Review podcast, Ponting said: “As I said after Ollie Robinson said what he said, this England cricket team hasn’t played against Australia and they’ll find out pretty quickly what playing Ashes cricket and playing against a good Australian cricket team is all about. And if Ollie Robinson hasn’t learned that already after last week, then he’s a slow learner.
“Some of the things he had to say – I mean he even brought my name into it, which I felt was a little bit unusual, but for me it’s water off a duck‘s back. If he is sitting back thinking about me, then no wonder he bowled like the way that he did in that game if he’s worried about what I did 15 years ago.”
Khawaja’s wicket in the first innings was Robinson’s first wicket of the game after having bowled more than 20 overs. While he finished the first innings with three wickets and had match figures of 5-98 in the end, it was not enough to impress either Ponting or Hayden.
“He’ll learn pretty quickly that if you’re going to talk to Australian cricketers in an Ashes series, then you want to be able to back it up with your skills,” said Ponting, while Hayden referred to him as “the other bloke” and called him a “forgettable cricketer” while speaking on the SENQ Breakfast.
“Then the other bloke, he’s a forgettable cricketer. A fast bowler that is bowling 124 (kph) nude nuts and he’s got a mouth from the south. Someone like him, you can just go, ‘Brother, I’m coming at ya’. Davey Warner can do that, right. He can just say, ‘You’re bowling 120km…’.”
