England fast bowler Ollie Robinson, who has only recently made his debut in test match cricket for England, turned an off-spinner on the 4th day of the ongoing Adelaide test match against Australia and bowled a few overs of tweakers, rather than his usual seam.
The England captain Joe Root was England’s only spinner for the Adelaide Test, as the visitors had decided to drop their specialist left-arm spinner, Jack Leach. Root sustained a niggle on the 4th morning while trying to warm up and while he returned to the ground later, he was not moving well and was not in a condition to bowl.
It left England with only medium pacers and for them to be rotated in hot weather, it was important that someone bowled spin at the other end. Also, there was not much help for the fast bowlers off the surface at that point of time, as the pink ball was getting older and softer. The England stand-in captain Ben Stokes, who was filling in as interim while Root was off the ground, decided Robinson would bowl a bit of off spin from one end.
Ollie Robinson got more turn than Jack Leach got in the first test
Ollie Robinson, surprisingly, looked a decent off-spinner as not only did he flight the ball, he also got a nice drift into the left-handers and away from the right-handers to go with a little bit of spin as well. Data later suggested that Robinson got more turn than England’s specialist spinner Jack Leach got in the first test.
Robinson, however, wasn’t able to create too much trouble for the Australian batsmen as he was not precise with his lengths and was probably a little bit too full at times. However, that’s expected from someone who is not a regular spinner.
It was after a long time in test match cricket that a specialist fast bowler decided to bowl spin. It was something which was not that uncommon in the previous decades as there were occasions in the past when the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Andrew Symonds and Kapil Dev bowled both pace and spin.
Going back even further in time, Garfield Sobers, arguably the greatest allrounder of all time, and the former India international Karsan Ghavri also used to bowl both pace and spin. But, what Ollie Robinson did today was something new for the modern-day fans, and Twitter was flooded with reactions.
Olie Robinson can be called as spear head of England's bowling line up as a fast bowler,and a part time bowler as off- spinner. Has this happened before??? #AskTheExpert #RivalsForever @SonySportsIndia
— Yogesh mehta (@Yogeshm21494975) December 19, 2021
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Unable to understand people dissing/ mocking Ollie Robinson for bowling off spin. He was decent actually .
Somehow feel, if a spinner tries seam bowling it wouldn’t be ridiculed so much .
Advertisement— Srini (@softsignalout) December 19, 2021
Average turn this series:
AdvertisementJack Leach – 2.8 degrees
Ollie Robinson – 3.7 degrees— Ben Jones (@benjonescricket) December 19, 2021
I don’t have strong opinions on the WTC over rate penalty issue … but Ollie Robinson bowling off spin does rather make a mockery of a series that’s been marketed as the ultimate in Test cricket.
— Michael Appleton (@michelappleton) December 19, 2021
Ollie Robinson is bowling offspin.
Four years of planning…#AUSvENG #Ashes
— Andrew McGlashan (@andymcg_cricket) December 19, 2021
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Ollie Robinson is bowling off-spin. A few bowlers who bowled pace & spin in international cricket: Sir Garfield Sobers, Karsan Ghavri, Colin Miller, Andrew Symonds, Sachin Tendulkar, Jayasuriya, Mark Waugh, Prabhakar, Sohail Tanvir, Shane Thomson, Kapil Dev
— Sarang Bhalerao (@bhaleraosarang) December 19, 2021
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Has Ollie Robinson just bowled an over of off spin? Or is the sleep deprivation finally starting to hit 😂😂 #Ashes
— Ben Dickson (@BenOUFCDickson1) December 19, 2021
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If the ICC feed goes down again and Ollie Robinson continues to bowl offies with sunnies on we are literally watching 4th grade
— Ian Higgins (@1an_Higgins) December 19, 2021
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England management confidently answered questions when asked about not playing a spinner after https://t.co/A60YcAo3TZ 4 – Ollie Robinson the seamer is trying his hands on some off spin
— Prasanna (@prasannalara) December 19, 2021
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Ollie Robinson is bowling off spin, once again reinforcing how much of a bizarre Christmas joke this series is. #ashes
— Lily Franklin (@lilyffranklin13) December 19, 2021
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Offies from Ollie Robinson! This is the tour that keeps on giving #ASHES
— Andrew Miller (@miller_cricket) December 19, 2021
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