Ashes 2023: Ricky Ponting responds to Ollie Robinson after English star’s sledge

Ricky Ponting has returned fire at Ollie Robinson after he found himself in the middle of the Englishman’s fiery first Test outburst.

Ricky Ponting has returned fire at Ollie Robinson after the Englishman’s fiery outburst at Usman Khawaja became the major talking point of the first Test.

Robinson had mouths wagging in Australia after refusing to apologise for yelling “f*** off, you f***ing pr**k” directly at Khawaja after dismissing him for 141 in the first innings.

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In a post match interview on Monday, the Pommy paceman blamed his actions on the heat of the contest and said his sledge wasn’t anything out of line, considering what England has been through in the past.

He referenced Ponting for doing similar to English batters in Ashes series gone by, prompting a swift response from the former Aussie skipper.

Ponting said Robinson was openly sledging Australia’s “nicest” player and warned him that some English players’ true colours could be exposed over the course of the five-Test clash.

Ponting gave Robinson a partial pass due to the context of the game at the time. He was struggling for a wicket, and Khawaja was the man to get.

“A lot of this stuff happens in the heat of battle. The only thing I‘d say with Ollie yesterday is Khawaja was on 140, Robinson hadn’t looked like getting a wicket all day, and he’s just sledged probably the nicest man that’s ever walked on the planet,” Ponting told Sky Sports in Birmingham.

Ponting acknowledged the contrasting actions on the field, as Joe Root, England’s captain, approached Khawaja to shake his hand and commend his performance while Robinson delivered a send-off.

“That’s the contrast of maybe a bowler who is toiling away and is a little bit frustrated, and a fielder that sat back and watched a really good Test match innings,” he continued.

Ponting has returned fire at Ollie Robinson.

The International Cricket Council’s code of conduct, specifically section 2.5, explicitly prohibits any form of “send-off” that includes verbally abusing a dismissed batsman.

Any breach is categorised as a level one offence, which can result in a fine of up to 50 per cent of a player’s match fee if they are charged and found guilty. For England players, this fine can amount to £15,000 ($28,000).

As of Tuesday, the ICC had not received any communication from match referee Andy Pycroft regarding the incident, according to their statement.

Ponting’s implication by Robinson led to some banter with his fellow commentators, former England captains Mike Atherton and Nasser Hussain, as the former Aussie captain recounted the moment he was made aware Robinson had mentioned him.

“I was sitting back having some pizza and watching the US Open golf, and my phone lit up with what he had to say in his press conference,” Ponting said.

“I was a little bit surprised just because it’s so long ago. If he had used one of the current players as an example, then fine, but I haven’t played for eleven years and probably haven’t sledged an Englishman for about 15.

“He must have a long memory.”

In a post match interview on Monday, the Pommy paceman blamed his actions on the heat of the contest and said his sledge wasn’t anything out of line, considering what England has been through in the past.

Atherton said that Robinson’s actions and statements clearly weren’t affecting the Australian team, and it is the former Australian players who are more agitated than the current squad.

“As we know in Ashes cricket, names and reputations are either made or not, and some of these English players have had terrific starts to their careers, but we‘ll find out more about them as the series goes on,” Ponting responded.

“Definitely, Ollie will be reminded of that, and the ones who seem least fazed by this whole thing are the Australian players. The past Australian players have probably got their backs up more than the current ones.”

Finishing with figures of 3 for 55, Robinson played a crucial role as England bowled out Australia for 386, trailing by a mere seven runs on the first innings.

While Australia managed a scoring rate of 3.32 runs per over in their innings, England’s more aggressive approach, exemplified by Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, seemed to disrupt Australia’s usual attacking style.

Ollie Robinson of England celebrates after taking the wicket of David Warner. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

“We‘ve made them play in the way that they have,” Robinson said after day three.

“The aggressive nature of the way that we’ve gone about it – batting and bowling – has made them play more defensively. It’s not normally something that you see from an Australian side but the way that we’re playing under Ben and Baz is causing that to happen.”

Leaning into his newfound villain role, Robinson also took the opportunity to question Australia’s batting depth, claiming the tourists have brought over “three No. 11’s” with Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland and Josh Hazlewood.

“It‘s something we spoke about as a group,” Robinson said. ”We said once we get past Cummins, we feel like they’ve got three No. 11s. It’s something that we can target through the series and try and wrap up their innings quite quick and try and give us that momentum into our batting innings.”

The final day of the first Test begins on Tuesday night at 8pm (AEST).