Ricky Ponting fires on Ollie Robinson over Khawaja sendoff, calls to 'back it up with skills'

Australian batting great Ricky Ponting has asked England pacer Ollie Robinson, who tried riling up Usman Khawaja with his expletive-laden sendoff during the Ashes opener at Edgbaston, to "back it up with your skills." Robinson was heavily criticised by former Australian cricketers, including Allan Border, Matthew Hayden and Ian Healy, for abusing Khawaja after he dismissed the Australian opener for 141 in the first innings.

However in the second essay, he could not break the partnership between tail-enders Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon, who chased down the target on the fifth day to give the visitors a 1-0 lead in the series.

"As I said after Ollie Robinson said what he said, this England cricket team hasn't played against Australia and they'll find out pretty quickly what playing Ashes cricket and playing against a good Australian cricket team is all about," Ponting told The ICC Review podcast.

"And if Ollie Robinson hasn't learned that already after last week, then he's a slow learner," he added.

While defending his act, Robinson made a reference to Ponting's sledging in his playing days. The two-time World Cup-winning captain took note of it.

"Some of the things he had to say - I mean he even brought my name into it, which I felt was a little bit unusual but for me it's water off a duck's back - if he is sitting back thinking about me, then no wonder he bowled like the way that he did in that game, if he's worried about what I did 15 years ago.

"He'll learn pretty quickly that if you're going to talk to Australian cricketers in an Ashes series, then you want to be able to back it up with your skills." Ponting also believed that Jonny Bairstow's wicket-keeping errors were one of the main reasons behind's England defeat in the opener.

"Jonny Bairstow actually had a very ordinary game behind the stumps, there's about four chances that he put down. And on flat wickets, if they want flat wickets, you cannot afford your keeper to be making mistakes.

"If you look at those mistakes by themselves, some people might say those mistakes could have cost him the Test match. Those are things they have to answer. Whereas Australia, because they've won the game, they'll have to answer a lot fewer questions," Ponting said.

England's 'Bazball' style of play did not result in a victory at Edgbaston and Ponting said the result will put the hosts under pressure going into the second Test.

"I think it's going to be a really, really good test for England. Actually, I think it's going to be a good test for their style of play. I think it's going to be a good test for their leadership and their coaching," Ponting said.

"One thing that I was looking forward to seeing most was how this style of play actually stood up against Australia. They've played Pakistan in Pakistan on flat wickets. I think they played New Zealand in six (five) of those 11 Test matches that they've won. And that was why I was so intrigued by what was going to happen.

"I said on commentary last night that, after day one, everyone was saying that Australia were negative, Australia had lots of questions to answer, how have Australia got to combat what England are doing? But Australia won the game."