Brimming with confidence after a successful County season, Ollie Robinson has said that Kane Williamson would be his top target if he debuts against New Zealand. With the two-match Test series scheduled to begin on 2 July, Wednesday, both New Zealand and hosts England would be looking to unleash a pace heavy attack at Lord’s.
"Swinging it away from him, setting him up, pulling him across the crease and then using the crease with the nip backer to get him LBW looks like a solid option,” Robinson said to Cricbuzz when asked about how would he like to target the Kiwi captain, one of the most prolific all format batters in the modern generation.
Robinson has been around the English Test camp for a while now and is one of the high-rated swing bowlers in England. Towering at a height of 6’ 5”, Robinson, while not express, has troubled the batsmen in domestic conditions due to additional bounce he can extract. On top of his abilities to move the ball both ways, the 27-year old’s frame helps him to extract seam off the ground.
This has helped the potential debutant scalp 214 First-Class wickets at a freakish average of 17.68.
It is not only Robinson’s natural ability that helps his case. His former coach and former Australian fast bowler Jason Gillespie has spoken widely about the Margate-born’s forensic ability to dissect batsmen.
Earlier in April, Gillespie, who has 259 Test scalps to his name, told ESPNcricinfo that Robinson is one of the most researched bowlers he has ever worked with.
"What I mean by that is he comes very prepared to every session, every team meeting, he does his research on the opposition batsmen, he watches a lot of footage, he pores over statistics, which may surprise a few people,” Gillespie had said.
Barring his bowling abilities, Robinson’s inclusion bolsters up the English lower order, a trait that the Englishmen do not mind since 2015. The average of 22.2 in First-Class cricket with seven 50s and one hundred will do Robinson’s reputation a world of good ahead of the selection for the upcoming English summer.