Ollie Robinson: 'Australia were unwilling to go toe-to-toe with us'
Ollie Robinson has stepped up his war of words with Australia's cricket establishment by claiming it is the visitors who will have to change their ways to keep up with England's Bazballers in the second Test at Lord's, despite Australia having taken the series lead with their two-wicket win at Edgbaston this week.
Writing in his new column for Wisden.com, Robinson said he was surprised by Australia's unwillingness "to go toe-to-toe with us", adding that Brendon McCullum, England's head coach, had told the team in his post-match address that they had made all the running in the game and that "it feels like we've won, lads".
"He just said, "Lads, I'm immensely proud of the efforts that you've put in, we've made the game what it was," Robinson related. "We were so close to pulling off an unbelievable victory. We played all the cricket in the game. If it wasn't for us, the Australians wouldn't have even had a chance to win."
Robinson added: "We're trying to create memories and be that team that everyone still speaks about in 20-30 years' time. We've entertained the world, and we've put the Aussies on the back foot. For him to say that after a loss is quite significant for us."
Robinson's comments come after his run-in with Usman Khawaja during the Edgbaston Test, in which he had told him "f**k off, you f***ing prick" after bowling him for 141 in the first innings, before James Anderson had to pull him away from another confrontation during his second-innings 65.
Those incidents, and Robinson's mid-match remark that he "doesn't care" what people think of his on-field attitude, drew an angry retort from Australia's former opening bat, Matthew Hayden, who described him as a "forgettable cricketer", and suggested that his opinions were not in keeping with his talents.
"He's a fast bowler that is bowling 124kph nude nuts and he's got a mouth from the south," Hayden told SEN Radio in Australia. "Someone like him, you can just go, 'Brother, I'm coming at ya'. Davey Warner can do that, right. He can just say, 'You're bowling 120′."
Hayden's former captain, Ricky Ponting - whom Robinson had referenced as an example of a previous Ashes sledger - also took aim at his comments.
"This England cricket team hasn't played against Australia, and they'll find out pretty quickly what playing Ashes cricket and playing against a good Australian cricket team is all about," Ponting said on an ICC podcast. "And if Robinson hasn't learned that already after last week, then he's a slow learner."
On the Khawaja incident, Robinson told Wisden.com: "I didn't realise the Ussie send-off was such a big thing until I got off the pitch to find my phone blowing up with mates texting me and it all going off.
""I just got caught up in the moment," he added. "I was desperate for a wicket; I hadn't bowled that well in the first innings. Obviously Ussie was the big wicket, he was playing beautifully. It was nothing against Ussie, it was just one of those things, I got caught up in the moment and let myself go.
"It was certainly an interesting week for me, taking Broady's mantle as Australia's public enemy number one!" Robinson added, referencing a tweet from Fox Cricket that described him as the "No.1 villain".
Broad - whose refusal to walk in the Trent Bridge Test in 2013 was the major flashpoint of that year's Ashes action - responded to the same tweet, saying: "No1 Villain?! I can't have lost that tag already can I?! Disappointing."
Looking ahead to next week's second Test at Lord's, Robinson added that England "know what's at stake" but promised that "you're going to see us come harder and harder" in their bid to turn around the scoreline and win the Ashes for the first time since 2015.
"It's not just the game and the result on the line, but also the faith that we're asking the English public to have in us for playing in this new way," he added. "I have faith in this team that, even if we went 2-0 down, we could still win 3-2, because of the style of cricket that we're playing."