Bullish Robinson predicts comfortable Ashes win for England

LONDON (Reuters): England’s resurgent test team can win the Ashes “comfortably” on home soil this year and make up for their 4-0 drubbing in Australia in the last series, fast bowler Ollie Robinson said.

Coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes have led England to 10 wins in 12 tests since taking over early last year on the back of an aggressive style of play dubbed “Bazball”.

With England enjoying such a strong run of form, Robinson saw no reason why they should not feel confident about winning the Ashes for the first time since 2015 when the series begins on June 16 at Edgbaston.

“The way we’re playing cricket at the moment, we feel like we can really stick one on them and win the series comfortably,” he told British media on Wednesday. “There’s definitely a desire there still, a hunger to put it right.

“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,” said Robinson.

“There’s a lot of hungry boys this summer wanting to beat the Aussies again … It’s one of the biggest series we play, so why not talk it up?”

England’s radical rebrand has yielded results both at home and abroad as they blanked New Zealand 3-0, beat South Africa 2-1 and completed a 3-0 sweep in Pakistan. They lost their last test by one run against New Zealand in Wellington in February.

“We’ve been dominating teams in all conditions for 12 months now,” Robinson said. “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.

“With Baz and Stokesy leading the side, from one to 11 we have huge confidence and it puts us in a great position for the summer.”