Head piles pressure on Robinson before Lord’s showdown

Australia batter Travis Head has warned Ollie Robinson he will need to back up his words when the Ashes continues at Lord’s on Wednesday after laughing off England’s latest sledging attempts.

The tourists clinched a stunning first Test by two wickets, with Robinson taking on the role of public enemy No.1 in Australia following a foul-mouthed send-off for centurion Usman Khawaja. He followed that up with an unrepentant press conference and a column for Wisden that took aim at Australia’s “defensive” tactics.

Robinson’s actions drew the ire of former Australia players such as Matthew Hayden and Ricky Ponting (whose conduct Robinson had called out), while Zak Crawley and other England players made equally optimistic public pronouncements, with the opener boldly claiming they will triumph at Lord’s by 150 runs.

But going into Wednesday’s second Test, Head and his World Test Championship-winning teammates are laughing it off.

“We’re only going for the lunch, apparently,” Head told 9News. “Yeah, they have got this mantra they’re going at. Not just on the field but off the field they are throwing some nice chat out but this team [Australia] is truly just worried about what we need to do to win the second Test to go 2-0 up and put some pressure on them.”

Head and Robinson were teammates at Sussex, but the Australian has told him he will need to perform well to back up his words. In the Edgbaston Test, Robinson did that, taking 5-98 to slightly lower his excellent international average of 21.

“I find it pretty fun,” Head said. “I had a few quiet words, jovial words, to him out there. It all makes for good fun and we’ll see where the next four Tests go.

“It didn’t go his way in the first one but he’s very competitive and he will want to step up. But if he doesn’t, I think they have got a few people at home that might want to get up his back.”

Head’s warning starts a new week of verbals between the sides, after tempers boiled during the first Test of what has been an eagerly anticipated series.

Robinson’s comments to Khawaja were widely criticised by former Australia players and Robinson admitted in his column he got “carried away” in the moment and “learnt his lesson” about going after Khawaja so fiercely. The pair cleared the air in the dressing room after the match.

But that did not stop him taking a swipe at the tourists’ style of play, which has been put into focus due to the way England took the fight to them.

“Of course it sounds weird because they won it, but I think if they’re honest, Australia will look at themselves and realise they need to change their approach to keep up with how we’re going to play,” Robinson wrote.

Head’s teammate Nathan Lyon said Australia would ignore Robinson’s words.

“It’s business as usual for us,” Lyon said. “We can’t control what they’re doing, we’ll sit down as a team and we’ve identified the areas we believe we need to get better at.”

Meanwhile, Head’s fellow batters Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith returned to Lord’s on Sunday, having spent their Saturdays at the home of Cricket in the nets following their low scores at Edgbaston.

Labuschagne took a painful blow to a finger on his right hand during his Saturday net session, but was fine to carry on after being checked by team doctor Leigh Golding.

Telegraph, London

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