England’s Test coach Brendon McCullum has acknowledged that Ollie Robinson put in a subpar performance in the recently-concluded Ranchi Test against India. The medium pacer, playing his first Test of the five-match series, failed to take any wicket across two innings and dropped a catch too. With the bat, Robinson, however, scored 58 in the first innings but got out on duck in the second innings. His failure with ball although is something for which he’s facing a lot of flak.
“Everything he did leading into the Test match suggested we’d see not just the Ollie Robinson we’d seen previously but a better version of it,” said McCullum on Tuesday (Feb 27).
“For one reason or another it didn’t quite work out for him. Obviously he’s not just as disappointed as everyone else, he’s the most disappointed out of everyone,” he added. It is rare of generally ultra-positive McCullum to accept the poor performance from one of his players.
India eventually won the Ranchi Test, fourth of the series, by 5 wickets and took an unassailable 3-1 lead with one more Test to go in Dharamsala which starts March 7.
After the match, former England skipper Michael Atherton also said that he was ‘disappointed’ with Robinson who didn’t bowl a single over in India’s second innings.
“Ollie Robinson, I was really disappointed with him in this game. I felt that he bowled, his pace was pedestrian, and he was quite down on pace. He looks like a bowler who needs a good run of game time now, not necessarily with England either,” Atherton said on Sky Cricket Podcast.
England had started the Test series well by winning the first Test in Hyderabad but three consecutive losses after that have left their World Test Championship (WTC) standing in tatters as well. The Three Lions are currently second last in ongoing 2023-25 cycle with three wins, five losses and one draw in nine games.