New Delhi: Former England captain Nasser Hussain has advised the under-fire fast bowler Ollie Robinson to let his actions on the field do the talking and keep the off-field distractions to a minimum for the remainder of the Ashes 2023 Test series against Australia.
Robinson picked up five wickets for the match in England’s narrow loss to Australia during an enthralling series opener in Birmingham earlier this month, but he received some criticism for celebrating the wicket of centurion Usman Khawaja excessively during Australia’s first innings.
While the celebration on its own raised some eyebrows, the fact that England pacer doubled down on his antics and even attempted to pass the blame over to the Australian team and their former skipper Ricky Ponting drew further criticism.
The former England skipper believes the right-armer only made an error in judgement by bringing Ponting’s name into the discussions when asked about the issue at the end of day’s play.
“He’s not the first cricketer to give someone a send-off in an Ashes battle and there’s a few Aussies that have given send-offs over the years,” Hussain said in the latest episode of The ICC Review.
“I’ve sort of enjoyed the to-ing and fro-ing from Ricky. We had Ricky working with us at Sky (Sky Sports) and the WhatsApp group was going ballistic that night… of all the Australians Ollie Robinson could mention, he mentioned Ricky.
Our WhatsApp group was very, very funny that night and I can’t tell you some of Ricky’s responses,” he added.
Hussain is now interested to see how Robinson responds for the remainder of the series and wants the ongoing war of words to be kept to a minimum.
“I wouldn’t be saying anything to Ollie Robinson (if I was England captain), apart from which end would you like to bowl and show us your skills. But I might be having a word with the media guy and saying I’m hearing too much from Ollie Robinson off the field and we have 10 other cricketers that can do the press and the media,” he said.
“The problem nowadays are the various outlets he might be writing or doing one of the websites…you get asked by various media outlets and then that’s magnified on social media.
Just whoever is in charge, I don’t want to be hearing about Ollie Robinson off the field, so can we just keep him away from the press just for the next four Ashes games as it builds through the series and it becomes the centre of attention,” he added.
The 55-year-old knows how emotional cricketers can get in the heat of the battle and thinks it can often bring the best out of players if handled well.
The former England skipper pointed to the emotion that India stalwart Virat Kohli displays on the field and even raised the incident that saw South Africa pace spearhead Kagiso Rabada suspended for one match for his over the top celebration when dismissing Joe Root back in 2020.
“It’s the emotion of a cricketer and especially a fast bowler bowling on a turgid pitch in an Ashes battle,” Hussain noted.
“The emotion of a moment, like Kagiso Rabada in the face of Joe Root in Port Elizabeth, and I backed him up for that very reason because it’s an emotional game and people want to see your emotion as it matters and you should care.
“Look at Kohli in India and the way he reacts, and there is emotion to the sport. He (Robinson) gave someone a send-off and I’m never a big fan of send-offs as when you get someone out, that’s enough. You’ve done it. You’ve got him out and you don’t have to tell him where the pavilion is,” he added.
IANS