Former Australian pacer Jason Gillespie doesn’t see much wrong in England pacer Ollie Robinson’s send-off to Usman Khawaja and the statements made in the press conference as well. While a few slammed Robinson for his comments, Gillespie added that things happen on the field in the heat of the moment and Robinson was no different.
In a media interaction arranged by Sony Sports Network, Jason Gillespie said: “I will be honest, I didn’t see a lot in it (Ollie Robinson’s comments). I have seen players have conversations with each other all the time on the field. I think why some of the former Australian players criticized Ollie Robinson is essentially he is a new kid on the block and he is having a go at guys. I don’t think Usman Khawaja probably cared that Robinson said something to him. We don’t want to see swearing, but I didn’t look at it as negatively as some other people did.”
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Jason Gillespie also opined on how England’s star batter Joe Root has evolved under the ‘Bazball’ method. He believes Root has got the license to play freely, which was missing when he was the Test captain.
Jason Gillespie stated: “Joe Root has always been the type of player who has tried to innovate and try new things. I think the philosophy of Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes and the freedom that they’re giving their players has rubbed off very positively on Joe Root in particular. Yes he played the odd scoop and reverse scoop. But outside of those big shots, he actually just played pretty normal cricket and not pretty outlandish until he got stumped which was the first time in his first class career.”
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“I actually saw glimpses of plan B (for Bazball) in the first Test. Look at Ben Stokes’ batting from the second innings. He scored 30-dd runs but faced a lot of balls. He was quite defensive, particularly against Nathan Lyon. That’s where the evolution of Bazball come in. If a bowler is coming in and bowling a really good spell, you can’t just keep throwing your hands at it and keep hitting sixes and fours every ball,” he concluded.
