Ollie to bowl over Aussies with his wit

OLLIE ROBINSON is ready to help England regain the Ashes by putting into practice all he has learnt from the Aussies – except the sledging.

That, he insists, will all be original witty material rather than borrowed lines from his time spent in Australia playing Grade cricket where he says the chat was “horrendous”.

Just like England team-mate Stuart Broad, who also cut his teeth in Grade cricket as a young lad, Robinson has the physical attributes to do well in Australia, but it is how he copes with everything else that will be more telling.

Broad loves the style of cricket Down Under and it would appear Robinson, 28, is cut from the same cloth after being exposed to it first as a 13-year-old bunking off from school in 2006 before playing there himself. Robinson said: “I watched Test matches here when I was 13. I ended up missing a couple of days either side of the Christmas holidays to make it a five-week trip, that was pretty special. I was lucky to be here.

“I remember thinking Freddie Flintoff just took it to the Aussies and growing up that’s what I wanted to do and how I wanted to play my cricket.

“It’s massively inspiring to watch that as a youngster, and now trying to emulate him and others in this series. I don’t think I could keep my head down if I tried. I’m definitely going to be trying to get under their skins and try and sort of unsettle them as it were.

“I haven’t really learnt from them on that front, the Aussie chat is pretty horrendous if I’m honest.

“I like to think I’ve got a bit more wit, but I’m not going to give away my secrets.”

Thankfully perhaps for England, Josh Hazlewood wasn’t so guarded when Robinson came to play at the St George District Cricket Club and passed on a few pointers.

Robinson picked the brains of Hazlewood and former Test bowler Trent Copeland – and reckons that advice together with the experience gained from playing for the England Lions in their ‘Test’ win over Australia A in 2020 will help make this a successful trip Down Under.

“Hopefully from one bowler to another he won’t mind the advice he gave me too much,” he added.