England paceman Ollie Robinson has brushed aside concerns about Sussex’s decision to sign Steve Smith ahead of the Ashes, confessing he “might not bowl” to the Australian vice-captain in the nets.
In January, Sussex announced it had signed Smith on a short-term deal, with the 33-year-old set to play three County Championship matches for the domestic side in May. The New South Welshman will face Worcestershire, Leicestershire and Glamorgan ahead of the World Test Championship final and the Ashes series, which gets underway at Edgbaston on June 16.
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Smith’s appointment caused a stir over in England, with fans accusing Sussex of helping the Australian acclimatise to local conditions before the Ashes. However, Robinson, who represents Sussex in the County Championship and will almost certainly come up against Smith in the Ashes, defended the decision.
“It’ll be good to have him here. For county cricket it’s great to have Steve Smith at Sussex,” Robinson said.
“For myself, it’s not going to change a huge amount. I’ll prepare the same way. I might get a better look at him in the nets.
“I might not bowl at him to be honest. We’ll see how it goes. But we had (Cheteshwar) Pujara here last summer and we played India and I bowled at him a lot.
“I don’t read too much into it. He’s a good player, he’s going to get runs whether I bowl at him here or not. It’s one of those things.”
England quick Jofra Archer, who famously clashed with Smith during the 2019 Lord’s Test, also represents Sussex, but would be unavailable in May due to Indian Premier League commitments.
Sussex head coach Paul Farbrace argued Smith’s presence in the County Championship will benefit England’s young cricketers, who can receive guidance and advice from the Australian.
“We want to keep county cricket strong and we want the best players coming to play county cricket,” Farbrace said.
“In Tom Haines we’ve got a player who could very much be playing for England in the next 12-18 months. If he spends a month with Steve Smith, batting in the middle and learning about international cricket from him, then Steve Smith is doing English cricket a huge favour.
“Either we want county cricket to be the best version of cricket in the world it can be or we want it to be second-rate where we don’t want overseas players.
“If you ask members and supporters, they want to watch the best players. We moan when we can’t see our own international players, so let’s get the best internationals we can over here and make county championship cricket the best it can be.”
Robinson, currently No. 6 on the ICC’s Test bowler rankings, has dismissed Smith twice in Tests, conceding 18 runs in 76 balls to the right-hander. The 29-year-old claimed 11 wickets at 25.54 against Australia in the 2021/22 Ashes series, where he battled fitness issues and a back spasm.
“There’s definitely a desire there still, a hunger to put it right,” Robinson said.
“I felt when I got back from that trip I didn’t leave it all out there and I’d let myself down and the side down a little bit. So it’s definitely something I want to put right and there’s a few fellas in that position as well. So there’s a lot of hungry boys this summer to beat the Aussies again.”
England has won 10 of its 12 Tests since Brendon McCullum took charge of the side last year, with Ben Stokes and his teammates implementing an aggressive “BazBall” strategy that has revolutionised their red-ball cricket.
Earlier this month, Robinson made headlines for predicting the hosts will give Australia “a good hiding” in the upcoming Ashes series.
“The way we’re playing cricket, we feel like we can really stick one on them and win the series comfortably,” Robinson said.
“I think the cricket we’re playing at the moment makes it such an exciting time to play them. 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 lost on the last day because we probably weren’t quite there. But I think the way we’re playing cricket, we feel like we can really stick one on them and win the series comfortably.”
The 2023 Ashes series gets underway at Edgbaston on June 16, with England hoping to win back the coveted urn for the first time in eight years.
