Travis Head Increases Pressure on Ollie Robinson Before Ashes Showdown at Lord’s

Australia batsman Travis Head has dismissed England’s latest sledging attempts ahead of the second Ashes Test at Lord’s on Wednesday. England seamer Ollie Robinson has not tempered his rhetoric since his role as public enemy No.1 following a sweary send-off of centurion Usman Khawaja in the first Test. However, Head has warned Robinson he will need to back up his words and perform well in the upcoming match. Robinson’s unrepentant press conference and a column for Wisden took aim at Australia’s defensive tactics, drawing criticism from former Australia players. Robinson’s comments were widely criticised, although Zak Crawley and other England players made optimistic public pronouncements, with the opener boldly claiming they will triumph by 150 runs. 
 
Going into the second Test, Head and his World Test Champion Australia team-mates are brushing off England’s taunts, focused on winning the second Test to go 2-0 up and put some pressure on their opponents. Head previously played with Robinson at Sussex but warned him to back up his comments in action. However, Head sees the fun side of sledging. The first test featured verbal spats among players from both teams and tempers boiled over in the eagerly anticipated series. Robinson’s comments drew criticisms from former Australian players, including Matthew Hayden and Ricky Ponting, whose conduct he had called out.

Meanwhile, Head’s fellow batters, Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith, returned to Lord’s for net sessions at the weekend, after low scores at Edgbaston. Labuschagne took a painful blow to a finger on his right hand during his Saturday net session, but was fine to carry on after being checked by team doctor Leigh Golding.

Australia’s Nathan Lyon admitted they would look to ignore Robinson. Lyon said, It’s business as usual for us. We can’t control what they’re doing, we’ll sit down as a team and we’ve identified the areas we believe we need to get better at. Ahead of the crucial second Test at Lord’s, both teams will resume their verbal sparring in what has become an eagerly anticipated Ashes series.