Robbo needs to pass his fitness Test
OLLIE Robinson is not fit enough to be a regular Test match cricketer.
That’s the damning verdict of England’s bowling coach Jon Lewis who is worried about the big seam bowler.
Robinson has made a big impact since breaking into the team but has been let down by his fitness a couple of times in his brief career.
He was out of the fourth Test in Sydney with a knock and limped off the field in the final game of the series against the Aussies in Tasmania.
He wasn’t able to bowl past the first session, which proved costly for Joe Root’s men who are already without Ben Stokes with a side strain.
Lewis said: “It’s definitely something to work on.
“It’s something he needs to improve. He’s got a record of playing a lot of games in county cricket.
“But international cricket is a higher intensity and you play all year round.
“So he’s got to get used to understanding what it takes to be a full- time year- round international cricketer.
“Also in these series we play now with the times we’re in everything is really squashed together.
“So there’s not a great deal of rest and recuperation between games so that’s something that he’s going to have to deal with.
“Is it a concern? It’s one of the things he really needs to work
on. He’s shown over the course of the English summer and this series so far that he can put back- to- back games together.
“But there’s areas he needs to work on for sure.
“Obviously losing Robinson has a big impact on the team.
You lose one of the seamers after he bowls seven overs and it has a big impact on the rest of the day.
“He was bowling fantastically well. He gets a lot of bounce. That has caused Australia trouble.”
Lewis says Robinson needs to sort his fitness out to remain a fixture in the team.
He added: “So far he’s been OK but we play a lot of cricket.
“It’s something he will need if he’s going to perform consistently over a long period of time at this level, he’ll need to be a fitter bowler.
“We’ve had those conversations with him and been pretty frank with him and now it’s up to him to go and do the work.”