The Ashes has begun and the players are all fired up. An example of this was seen when England pacer Ollie Robinson dismissed Usman Khawaja on Day 3 of the 1st Ashes Test. As Robinson cleaned up a well-set Khawaja, the pacer was chuffed to bits and celebrated the dismissal aggressively. Robinson also gave Khawaja a fiery send-off.
The England pacer called Khawaja a “f***ing pr**k”. Robinson was right into Khawaja’s face after he dismissed the Aussie batter. As expected, Robinson faced a lot of flak for his fired-up celebration but the pacer looked in no mood to take any of them.
Ollie Robinson straightaway justified his celebration and said that he does not regret it at all. The pacer said that if players can’t even handle that, it’s their problem. Robinson also cited Ricky Ponting’s example and how the former Australia captain used to give England players a hard time.
“When you’re in the heat of the moment and have the passion of the Ashes, that can happen. We’ve all seen Ricky Ponting and other Aussies do that to us, so just because the shoe is on the other foot, it’s not received well,” said Robinson to the press.
Ian Healy and Allan Border not too impressed with Ollie Robinson
Although Ollie Robinson has given an explanation, former Australia cricketer Allan Border and Ian Healy have criticized the pacer. While Border warned Robinson about the retaliation from the Aussies, Healy demanded a punishment for the Englishman saying the pacer was trying to incite a reaction from Usman Khawaja.
“It is a lack of class like he’s been criticized for, but that’s ok, it happens in the heat of the moment. I think he should have been punished because it was shown so closely on TV and it does incite retaliation” Healy told SENQ Breakfast.
In case you missed!