Ollie Robinson made an impressive Test debut at Lord’s against New Zealand earlier this year. He returned with match figures of 7/101 and scored 42 runs with the bat. Unfortunately, he was in the limelight for all the wrong reasons.
A few of his old tweets that were problematic surfaced on the internet and the England Cricket Board (ECB) suspended him from all international matches until further investigation. The 27-year old pacer is now cleared of all charges and has been named in the 17-man England squad for the first two Test matches against India in the upcoming Test series.
Monty Panesar had called for Ollie Robinson’s immediate return to the XI. The former England spinner believes that the tall pacer can bring the X-factor to the English attack. He said that Robinson had a high arm action similar to that of New Zealand’s Kyle Jamieson who troubled the Indian batsmen in the World Test Championship final.
“They should play Robinson because he is a high arm bowler and his release is the second-highest in world cricket after [New Zealand's] Kyle Jamieson,” Monty Panesar told Sportsmail.
“The Indian batsmen will struggle with really tall bowlers and, if he plays, that could provide an X-factor that will make the Indian batsmen feel uncomfortable
I was at the World Test Championship final and they couldn't get Jamieson away. The Indian batsmen average between 30 and 35 but when the bowlers have such a high release point - and Jamieson is about 2.03 meters, with Robinson similar to that - then they're going to struggle,” he added.
An independent investigating body fined the Sussex cricketer £3,200 for his old tweets and gave him a suspended sentence which made him eligible for the national side. Monty Panesar said that Robinson had served his punishment. He felt that the inclusion of the tall bowler will make the series more competitive.
“I think they should bring him back into the team and that will make the series competitive. He has served his punishment, it was 10 years ago when he was a teenager. As a teenager, nobody knows what is right and wrong,” he said.
England was hammered 3-1 in India on rank-turners in February this year. It will be interesting to see if they roll out green pitches for the Indian batsmen, something that has been done in the past.
The former English spinner, however, believes that the pitches might be flat to stretch the games to day five.
“I think there will be flat wickets. There is huge talk about green pitches versus the spinning decks in India and home advantage but I predict the ECB would want the Test matches to go to a fourth and fifth day for the revenue,” he said.
“If we have a proper heatwave in August with more sunny days than overcast conditions, India has a much better chance. India is a stronger team with no cloud cover, with cloud cover England is the stronger side,” he concluded.
(Sportsmail inputs)
