'Back it Up With Your Skills..': Ricky Ponting's Brutal Dig at Ollie Robinson After Usman Khawaja Spat

Ricky Ponting has opened up about the on-field altercation between England’s Ollie Robinson and Australia’s Usman Khwaja which transpired during the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston. During a conversation at the ICC Review podcast, Ponting expressed his discontent over Robinson bringing his name into the spat.

Robinson and Khawaja engaged in a war of words after the English pacer dismissed the Aussie opener during Australia’s first-innings batting. The duo once again involved in a verbal battle on the fifth day of the game but Robinson’s fellow English pacer James Anderson intervened to cool down the situation.

With the incident garnering a lot of criticism from the cricket fraternity, Robinson tried to prove his point by shelling out references to previous instances of sledging in the Ashes, putting stress on the name of Ponting. “We all have seen Ricky Ponting and other Aussies do the same to us. And just because the shoe is on the other foot, it is not received well,” Robinson said.

Ollie Robinson’s remark, however, did not go down well with Ricky Ponting. The Punter sent a stern notice to Robinson, saying the English bowler should focus on the present as it was quite “unusual” to dig out what happened in the past.

Taking a sarcastic dig at Robinson, Ponting said, “This England cricket side hasn’t faced off against Australia, but they’ll surely learn what it’s like to play Ashes cricket and take on a good Australian cricket team.”

Ponting further suggested Robinson focus on developing his skills rather than thinking about what the ex-cricketer did “15 years ago.” “He’ll learn pretty quickly that if you’re going to talk to Australian cricketers in an Ashes series, then you want to be able to back it up with your skills,” Ponting added.

Usman Khawaja was the pick of the batter for Australia winning the opening Ashes Test by 2 wickets and taking an early lead in the five-match series. He made an unbeaten 141 off 321 deliveries in the first innings before playing a match-winning 65-run knock in the second innings. On the other hand, Ollie Robinson wrapped up the game with 5 wickets under his belt.