Nasser wants Ollie to minimise off-field distractions

Nasser Hussain

Former England captain Nasser Hussain has advised under-fire fast bowler Ollie Robinson to let his actions on the field do the talking and keep the off-field distractions to a minimum for the remainder of the Ashes 2023 Test matches against Australia.

Robinson picked up five wickets for the match in England's narrow loss to Australia during an enthralling series-opener in Birmingham earlier this month, but he received some criticism for celebrating the wicket of centurion Usman Khawaja excessively during Australia's first innings.

‘He's not the first one'

"He's not the first cricketer to give someone a send-off in an Ashes battle and there's a few Aussies that have given send-offs over the years," Hussain said in the latest episode of The ICC Review.

"I've sort of enjoyed the to-ing and fro-ing from Ricky. We had Ricky working with us at Sky [Sky Sports] and the WhatsApp group was going ballistic that night... of all the Australians Ollie Robinson could mention, he mentioned Ricky.

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"Our WhatsApp group was very, very funny that night and I can't tell you some of Ricky's responses," he added.

Minimal use of words

Hussain is now interested to see how Robinson responds in the remainder of the series and wants the ongoing war of words to be kept to a minimum. "I wouldn't be saying anything to Robinson [if I was England captain], apart from which end would you like to bowl and show us your skills. But I might be having a word with the media guy and saying I'm hearing too much from Robinson off the field and we have 10 other cricketers that can do the press and the media," he said.

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