Robinson on celebration response: ‘If you can’t deal with that, what are you able to deal with?’
In a punchy press convention following a rain-hit third day of the First Test at Edgbaston, Robinson additionally labelled Australia a “defensive” staff and mentioned the vacationers’ tail was made up of “three No11s”.
Robinson took three wickets on the third morning as England bowled Australia out for 386 to assert a slender first innings lead of seven runs.
The first of these – and Robinson’s first of the sequence – spelled the top of centurion Khawaja, with cameras clearly displaying the seamer telling the Australian to “f*** off” throughout his celebration.
“It’s my first home Ashes and to get the big wicket at the time was special for me,” Robinson mentioned. “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 techniques noticed Nathan Lyon and Scott Boland add only one run between them, whereas final man in Josh Hazlewood was unbeaten on one when Pat Cummins was caught by Ben Stokes attempting to clear the fence.
England’s personal batting has been strengthened by the recall of Moeen Ali at No8, whereas Robinson was himself unbeaten on 17 on the time of Stokes’s shock first innings declaration, and the Sussex seamer believes it’s an space the place the house staff will maintain the benefit all through the sequence.
“It’s something we’ve spoken about as a group,” he mentioned. “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 completed the day at 28 for 2 of their second innings, a lead of 35, after each Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley had been dismissed throughout a clumsy, gloomy interval between rain delays.
England will return tomorrow hoping to construct a sizeable lead, with Robinson suggesting a full day’s bowling on Tuesday can be sufficient to skittle the vacationers and declare a 1-0 sequence benefit.
“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.”