England bowler Ollie Robinson shrugged off his expletive-laden send-off of Australia's Usman Khawaja as “part of the theatre” of Ashes cricket.
In a punchy press conference following a rain-hit third day of the First Test at Edgbaston, Robinson also labelled Australia a “defensive” team and said the tourists’ tail was made up of “three No11s”.
Robinson took three wickets on the third morning as England bowled Australia out for 386 to claim a slender first innings lead of seven runs.
The first of those - and Robinson’s first of the series - spelled the end of centurion Khawaja, with cameras clearly showing the seamer telling the Australian to “f*** off” during his celebration.
“It’s my first home Ashes and to get the big wicket at the time was special for me,” Robinson said. “I think Uzzie played unbelievably well. To get that wicket at the time for the team was massive. We all want that theatre of the game and I am here to provide it.
“I don’t really care how it’s perceived [in the Australian dressing room], to be honest. It’s the Ashes, it’s professional sport. If you can’t handle that, what can you handle?
“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’s on the other foot, it’s not received well.”
Khawaja’s wicket prompted a collapse of four-for-14 as England’s short-ball tactics saw Nathan Lyon and Scott Boland add just one run between them, while last man in Josh Hazlewood was unbeaten on one when Pat Cummins was caught by Ben Stokes trying to clear the fence.
GOT HIM!
— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) June 18, 2023
Ollie Robinson with the breakthrough for England ⚡
Usman Khawaja goes for a sensational 141 🙌🔥 pic.twitter.com/wH7DcTyVuE
England’s own batting has been strengthened by the recall of Moeen Ali at No8, while Robinson was himself unbeaten on 17 at the time of Stokes’s surprise first innings declaration, and the Sussex seamer believes it is an area where the home team will hold the advantage throughout the series.
“It’s something we’ve spoken about as a group,” he said. “We said that once we get past Cummins we feel they have three No11s. It’s something we can target through the series and wrap up their innings quite quickly and give us momentum into our batting innings.”
England finished the day at 28 for two in their second innings, a lead of 35, after both Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley were dismissed during an awkward, gloomy period between rain delays.
England will return tomorrow hoping to build a sizeable lead, with Robinson suggesting a full day’s bowling on Tuesday would be enough to skittle the tourists and claim a 1-0 series advantage.
“I think ideally a day, 90 overs, if they had a score to chase, that would allow us to bowl them out,” he added. “If they were playing for the draw, playing defensively like that have done so far this game, then it might be slightly different. We’ll have to wait and see.”
