England quick Ollie Robinson doubles down on promise to give Australia a “good hiding”

A little more than a year on, it feels as if Robinson has answered those questions. Brimming with confidence after a successful winter, he is raring to have another crack at the Australians, in what he says will probably be the biggest summer of his career.

In the 16 Tests he has played, Robinson has claimed 66 wickets at an average of 21.27, and since his return to the side against South Africa in August, he has often been trusted with the new ball. The 29-year-old was the leading wicket-taker among the seamers in England’s historic 3-0 series win in Pakistan. While other bowlers could be rotated, his new-found fitness, combined with his skill, means he is likely to feature in most, if not all, of the five-match Ashes series.

Speaking to local radio last week Robinson said that the Australians were in for a “good hiding” this summer. While other players may have regretted using such bullish language for fear of hubris, Robinson was glad that his comments were picked up widely, and he has doubled down on them, saying that England can “stick one on” Australia this summer.

“I was only talking to local radio but I was happy that they [the comments] got out,” he says. “I mean, it’s been happening in every Ashes series for years – Glenn McGrath says the Aussies will win 5-0 every Ashes, we say 5-0 every Ashes. It’s one of the biggest series we play so why not talk it up? Get it going, get it big and give the fans what they want.”

Far from being concerned that his bold Ashes predictions and his onfield sledging will fire up Australia, Robinson believes adopting such an attitude will help him and his teammates in the heat of the battle.

“I think for myself it gets me going a bit on the field and hopefully it brings some of our boys with me as well, to get them going,” he says. “We’ve got a few quiet characters so sometimes it helps gee them up a bit – it works for us.

“I think the cricket we are playing at the moment makes it such an exciting time to play them [Australia]. We’ve been dominating teams in all conditions for 12 months now – in England we dominated, in Pakistan we dominated and in New Zealand we played most of the cricket for nine days and just lost [the second Test] on the last day. But I think the way we are playing at the moment, we can really stick one on them and win the series comfortably.”

Having been called out publicly for his lack of fitness during the previous Ashes series, when he struggled to get through an entire Test and had to keep coming off the field, Robinson has come back fitter, leaner and more skilful. He has become one of the first names on the team sheet and a leader among the bowling attack – a natural successor to James Anderson and Stuart Broad when the time comes. He says he has the “hunger” to “put right” what went wrong the last time he faced the old enemy.

“I felt when I got back from that trip to Australia, I didn’t leave it all out there and I’d let myself and the side down a bit, so it’s definitely something I want to put right, and there’s a few fellas in that position as well,” he says. “So there’s a lot of hungry boys this summer to beat up the Aussies.”

Robinson will get an early look at one of Australia’s key players when Steve Smith joins Sussex in May for three County Championship matches.

“For county cricket it’s great to have Steve Smith at Sussex,” Robinson says. “I think for myself, it’s not going to change a huge amount. I’m still going to prepare the same way and have a bit of a look at him in the nets.

“I might not bowl at him [in the nets], we’ll see. But we had Cheteshwar Pujara here last summer and we played India and I bowled at him a lot. Steve is a good player and he’s going to get runs whether I bowl at him in the nets or not.”

Robinson is expected to play in three of the first six rounds of championship matches, starting at Hove against Durham next week. Pujara has been named as their red-ball captain after Tom Haines stood down, and Robinson will be a key part of their early-season campaign.

Smith, 33, will be at Sussex before joining the Australia camp for the World Test Championship final against India at the Kia Oval from June 7. Some have questioned the wisdom of allowing Smith to get acclimatised to English conditions before the Ashes but Paul Farbrace, Sussex’s head coach, has defended their decision to sign the star.

“Steven has been playing in England since he was 17. He came to play Lancashire league cricket at 17 and then moved to Sevenoaks Vine in the Kent League,” Farbrace, the former England assistant coach, said. “He played second-team cricket at Kent. His mum is from Maidstone, he has a British passport.

“I think we are doing English cricket a massive favour. Last year there were a lot of county clubs, Sussex being one of them, who were not happy with Andrew Strauss’s reforms for county cricket. We want to keep county cricket strong. In Tom Haines, we’ve got a player who could very well be playing for England in the next 12 to 18 months. If he spends a month with Steve Smith, batting and learning about international cricket from him, then Smith is doing English cricket a huge favour.”

Originally published as England quick Ollie Robinson doubles down on promise to give Australia a “good hiding”