Ricky Ponting slams Ollie Robinson after Ash villain compared his F-bomb blast at Usman Khawaja to what ‘Punter’ used to cook up in his heyday
- Ricky Ponting hits back at Ollie Robinson
- Ponting english bowler tags a slow learner
- Aussie says England have more questions to answer
Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has put new Ashes villain Ollie Robinson in the gun, calling the bowler “slow to learn” for his failed efforts to unseat Usman Khawaja in the first Test at Edgbaston.
Ponting also said England had ‘more questions to answer than Australia’ for the second Test at Lord’s and said he ‘wouldn’t refuse’ their talk about entertaining and playing the game positive cricket being as important as winning.
Robinson picked Ponting for his own luge in the Ashes series when defending the sendoff he gave man of the match Khawaja when he fired him in the first set after the Australian fly-half made a gigantic 141 points.
Ponting said it was ‘water off a duck’s back’ for himself, but it came back to haunt Robinson, who couldn’t help his side eliminate the Australians on the final day as they recorded an unforgettable victory.
“As I said after Ollie Robinson said what he said, this England cricket team haven’t played Australia and they’ll find out pretty quickly what it’s like to play Ashes cricket and play against a good Australian cricket team,” Ponting said. ICC Review Podcast.
Ricky Ponting (pictured) said Ollie Robinson’s remarks about him were ‘water off a duck’s back’
Ollie Robinson singled out Ponting for his own luge in the Ashes series when defending the sendoff he gave man of the match Khawaja when he fired him in the first set
“And if Ollie Robinson hasn’t already learned that after last week, then he’s learning slowly.”
“Some of the things he had to say – I mean he even added my name to it, which I thought was a bit unusual, but to me that’s water off the back of a If he’s sitting around thinking about me, then no wonder he played the way he did in this game if he’s worried about what I did 15 years ago.
“He’ll learn pretty quickly that if you’re going to talk to Australian cricketers in an Ashes series, you want to be able to back it up with your skills.”
Ponting singled out England goalkeeper Jonny Bairstow for having an “ordinary game” at Birmingham as one of the main reasons England lost.
He said going into the second 1-0 test of the series would be the biggest test of England’s all-around attacking style of play.
“As far as I’m concerned now, England have more questions to answer than Australia,” Ponting said.
“On their style of play, but also now looking at this first test, they also have selection issues that they are going to have to deal with.
“Jonny Bairstow actually had a very ordinary game behind the stumps, there’s about a four chance he bet. And on flat wickets, if they want flat wickets, you can’t allow your keeper to make mistakes.
Aussie striker Usman Khawaja had the final say on Ashes ‘bad guy’ Ollie Robinson as the first Test went to the wire in Edgbaston
Ponting said Robinson will learn that “if you’re going to talk to Australian cricketers in an Ashes series then you want to be able to back it up with your skills”.
“If you look at those mistakes on their own, some people might say those mistakes could have cost him the test match.” These are things they have to answer. Whereas Australia, because they won the match, will have to answer far fewer questions.
Ponting also challenged the idea that England were not result-oriented and put positive cricket above winning.
” I do not believe it one second. It’s an Ashes series, it’s the biggest challenge Ben Stokes has had in his captaincy career,’ Ponting noted.
‘I’m not going to miss it.
“I mean, if they’re not result-oriented, they wouldn’t be disappointed at all to lose. And it seemed to me last night, and he said it, that all of his players were in pieces at the end of this game. So that means to me that they care about losing, and you should.