Last Updated on 4 years ago by Charbel Coorey
Cricket News: Ollie Robinson could miss entire New Zealand Test series | Ollie Robinson continues to experience back issues
English pacer Ollie Robinson has pulled out of County Select XI’s match against New Zealand at Chelmsford as he experienced some back stiffness during the pre-game warmup on Thursday.
“Ollie felt a bit of stiffness in his back while he was warming up this morning before the game. We had a chat and felt as a precaution that it was sensible for him to sit out this match. We’ll assess him and move forward from there,” England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) Elite Pathway Coach Richard Dawnson was quoted in a report by the ESPNCricinfo.
The 28-year-old debuted against New Zealand at Lord’s last year and emerged as a promising prospect with 28 Test wickets in his maiden home season.
He showed potential in England’s dismal Ashes campaign as well, having taken 11 wickets in Australia. However, Robinson has been facing a series of injury setbacks ever since. Even during the Ashes, he had to withdraw from the match in Sydney and bowled merely 19 overs over two innings in Hobart due to a back spasm.
Back then, England’s bowling coach John Lewis had been openly critical of Robinson and said, “We’ve been pretty frank with him. And now it’s up to him to go and do the work.”
Ollie Robinson withdrawn from first 2 Tests against New Zealand
However, the ousters of James Anderson and Stuart Broad followed in England’s subsequent tour to the Caribbean. Robinson got picked in the squad and was naturally regarded as the leader of the bowling pack considering his encouraging performances in the summer.
But, the fast-bowler faced a recurrence of his back spasm in the warm-up game at Antigua and thus didn’t play any role in the series thereafter.
Robinson clearly looked the county season to resurrect his fortunes. However, hindrances like a tooth infection and a bout of food poisoning means that he hasn’t been able to get a consistent run of games in the past couple of months.
He was thus excluded from England’s squad for the first couple of Tests against the touring Kiwis. Now, Robinson can only eye the Championship game vs Glamorgan in Cardiff from 12th June to make a case for his comeback for the third Test against New Zealand that will commence at Headingly from 23rd June.
