Veteran David Boon opened up on Ollie Robinson’s verbal exchanges with the Australian players in the recently concluded first Ashes Test. Robinson gave Usman Khawaja a send-off after removing him in Australia’s first innings of the Ashes opener at Edgbaston in Birmingham. And, then he got engaged in a couple of other verbal duels with Australian players.
During an interaction on the podcast ‘SEN Tassie’, Boon said: “The guys are playing for their country. They are trying to be aggressive without going over the line in the sand. I think maybe a little bit too much is being made out of it. The referee and the umpires at that stage, they didn’t make a report, he hasn’t been on a code of conduct.”
He continued: “It’s all being led from other areas. I don’t have a lot to comment about it but for mine, he was looking away. Ya, he might have said something. It’s a part of the game at times as long as it doesn’t become personal and for me looking at it, there wasn’t a lot of personal in that.”
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However, Ollie Robinson had no regrets about his words to Usman Khawaja when he was asked about the same in the press conference. He shared that it happened in the heat of the moment and that Aussie players, including former greats like Ricky Ponting, are known for their aggressive nature as well.
While talking about Pat Cummins’ captaincy, he replied: “I think he is an exceptional young leader. When I was lucky enough during COVID to referee some Australian games in Australia, he captained well, he communicates well and he listens to things that he is told from a referee and umpire’s point of view and he gets it right.” Boon added: “I think he is a very good leader. He is obviously leading them in the right fashion, they are responding, and he is going okay. So there is nothing to change there.”
He has also cast his vote against Travis Head replacing David Warner as Australia’s opener for the second Ashes Test as well. Notably, Australia are 1-0 up in the five-match series.
He said: “There are a lot of different ways that you can look at it. If I was looking at it, I think Warner is still going to open. He looked better in the second innings, more in control and Travis Head has been going so well where he is batting. I would find it difficult to change that. I believe if you are going to make a change, make it somewhere else and leave Travis where he is. He has now had at least 18 months of exceptional cricket under his belt, with a number of hundreds and playing aggressively as well. So I personally wouldn’t change that.”
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However, Travis Head has amassed 1455 runs which came at an excellent average of 53.88 in the 19 Tests he has played since the beginning of 2021.
“The Australian team, as many have done before, are batting around Usman Khawaja. He hasn’t changed the way he plays and neither should he. Labuschagne is not going to miss out too many times, Smith is obviously quality and then they have Travis following them. I think that’s a good three, four and five,” he concluded.
