Nasser Hussain offers shrewd advice to Ollie Robinson after backlash over Usman Khawaja send-off
Jun 25, 2023
London [UK], June 25 : Former England skipper Nasser Hussain has advised under-fire fast bowler Ollie Robinson to let his efforts on the pitch speak for themselves and limit off-field distractions for the rest of the Ashes series against Australia.
Robinson took five wickets in England's close loss to Australia in a thrilling series opener in Birmingham, but he was chastised for over-celebrating the wicket of centurion Usman Khawaja during Australia's first innings.
While the celebration itself received considerable criticism, the fact that England then doubled down on his actions and sought to shift blame to the Australian squad and former skipper Ricky Ponting drew even more.
Hussain discussed Robinson in depth on The ICC Review, and the former England captain feels the right-armer made a mistake by bringing Ricky Ponting's name into the debate when questioned about the matter at the end of the 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. 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," Hussain said.
Hussain is now interested in seeing how Robinson responds to the balance of the series and wishes to keep the ongoing verbal battle 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," Hussain 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," former England skipper said.
