New Delhi: Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting has reiterated that the England seamer Ollie Robinson has not looked particularly dangerous so far in the Ashes series, even after a three-wicket haul in the second Test at the Lord’s.
Robinson returned figures of 3-100, removing Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Hazlewood, and Nathan Lyon in the first innings of the Lord’s Test match.
Those three wickets leave Robinson with the most wickets of any pace bowler in the series so far, with a lower average and economy than any of Australia’s pace attack.
But speaking on the ICC Review podcast, Ponting said that the stats are skewed by Robinson picking up lower-order wickets and that Robinson, although skilful, has lacked threat.
“I don’t think he’s looked dangerous in the series at all,” Ponting said. “I mean, if you look at the wickets, he’s got the tailenders out in each game. Yes, he got Marnus (Labuschagne) in this innings here. But then he got (Nathan) Lyon and then he got (Josh) Hazlewood. So if he didn’t get the 10 and 11 out, then he finishes his innings with one wicket at over four runs an over.”
“He’s a very skilful bowler, no doubt about that, and no one would’ve said a word about Ollie Robinson if he hadn’t have sort of instigated this whole tit-for-tat that’s been happening over the last couple of weeks.
“And to be honest, I think the whole thing’s been blown completely out of proportion. It’s something that everyone’s enjoyed talking about, and some of the ex-players have enjoyed hopping in and having a bit of a crack, but at the end of the day he’s a skilled bowler and, as you say, his numbers so far in the series are actually okay,” he said.
Robinson was one of four frontline quick bowlers named by England in their side for the Lord’s, with Josh Tongue replacing Moeen Ali after the spinner picked up a finger injury in the first Test.
Ponting said he understands why England opted for the unusual all-seam approach with their bowling attack selection.
“As it turned out, Joe Root got two wickets in the first innings anyway, and to be honest I think that the obvious reason that they haven’t (picked a spinner) is they think they haven’t got one good enough to come in and play Test cricket.
“They would rather back another seam bowler over playing another spinner. And that actually makes sense to me.
“When you think about most of their attack, with conditions here at Lord’s, they would’ve definitely wanted Robinson, Anderson and Broad to all play. But if you play all three of those guys and a spinner, then there’s a lot of sameness to the attack. So they wanted to bring in someone with a little bit of extra pace.
“Ideally, I’m sure they would’ve wanted Mark Wood to play. He wasn’t quite right, so they went with Tongue, who looked actually quite good. He’s got a slightly different action, a front-on chest action that gets the ball to swing away from the right-hander.”
“We’ll judge the selections at the end of the game, but right now everything’s sort of going okay for England, considering what they’re doing with the bat in the game right now,” Ponting noted.
IANS
