Ajit Agarkar Praises Ollie Robinson; Terms His Five-Wicket Haul As A 'Huge Positive' For England

Former Indian pacer Ajit Agarkar has lavished praise on England’s inexperienced bowler Ollie Robinson. Despite having played just one Test match, Robinson bowled excellently in the first innings of the first Test against India to claim his maiden five-wicket haul.

His efforts coupled with James Anderson’s 4/54 enabled the hosts to restrict India to 278 in their first essay. The pacer from Sussex, who recently opened up about the backlash over his racist tweets, was lauded by Agarkar. After the first match ended in a draw, Agarkar spoke in detail about Robinson’s performance under pressure.

“It was extremely necessary for a less experienced bowler to perform like that, especially the circumstances in which he came in the team, he was suspended for a few days before this. So there would have been a lot of pressure on this less experienced player and when you have that much pressure you pay attention to other things apart from bowling but he did not do that.“

“His performance in the first innings, where he took five wickets, is a huge positive for England. Because there were injuries to Jofra Archer and Chris Woakes and they needed someone who could step us as the third bowler. Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad did not start that well in that innings,” Agarkar explained.

Ajit Agarkar feels Robinson used his height to a good advantage

Ollie Robinson brings a lot of variety into this swing-dominant English bowling attack comprising Anderson, Stuart Broad, and Sam Curran. Being a tall guy, Robinson can extract a lot of bounce from the surface, something Kyle Jamieson did to trouble the Indian batsmen.

“The way he bowled, he got swing as the conditions were favourable but the bounce he gets with which he troubled the Indian batsmen. He bowled a short ball to Rohit Sharma when the ball was swinging, which was a surprise. So he has that ability and he thinks about his bowling,” he noted.

Going into the second Test at Lord’s, much will depend on how Ollie Robinson fares considering how vital he was in the first game.