Joe Root breaks silence on Ollie Robinson's suspension over racist and sexist posts

Amidst a massive uproar over Ollie Robinson's tweets, the England Cricket Board (ECB) on Monday suspended the pacer from international cricket. The decision of the ECB comes after Ollie Robinson's controversial tweets posted in 2012-13 went viral on social media after Stumps on Day 1 of the first ENG vs NZ Test. A series of Ollie Robinson's controversial tweets of sexist and racist nature from 2012 emerged on Twitter. Notably, Ollie Robinson debuted in the England vs New Zealand series. Now, English skipper Joe Root has broken his silence over the controversy and seems like he is not happy with the decision of the ECB to suspend Ollie Robinson. 

Joe Root says the dressing room will back Ollie Robinson

England's Test skipper Joe Root during the post-match press conference talked about Ollie Robinson's suspension by the ECB and also said that the pacer's debut was exceptional. "I could not believe it personally, I did not really know how to take it on the surface but the most important thing is Ollie is part of this dressing room and we have to support him. We will try everything we could, we have to try everything, we have to give him the opportunity to learn and to understand it and he has to do betters," said Root. 

"From the performance point of view, I feel that he had an exceptional debut. He contributed well with the bat and his contribution with the ball was excellent he showed a high level of skill, regardless of what was happening off the field. He spoke to the media guys and showed a lot of remorse from that onwards. You can see he is very genuine from he is around in the groove in the team. I think it is a great lesson for our team that we can do more and we have to keep looking to educate ourselves and try to better the environment for everyone," added Joe Root. 

Ollie Robinson issues an apology

It is to be noted that, after the end of day one, Robinson issued a formal apology for his controversial tweets drew flak. Maintaining that he is not racist and sexist, the pacer affirmed that he has matured as a person and fully regrets the post. He said, "I will continue to educate myself, look for advice and work with the support network that is available to me to learn more about getting better in this area. I am sorry, and I have certainly learned my lesson today".

Ollie Robinson Stats

Making his debut for Sussex in 2015 at the age of 21, Ollie Robinson has played 64 first-class games bagging 286 wickets at an average of 20.88 besides scoring 1709 runs at an average of 22.48 with one hundred and seven 50s. In April this year, he registered his career-best bowling figures of nine for 78 in an innings as Sussex beat Glamorgan by 8 wickets. 

In the List A format, he has 14 wickets to his name while scoring 122 runs. While he has not represented England at the national level before the Test series versus the Kiwis, he became a decent start in his T20 career. So far, he has taken 40 wickets in 44 T20 games at a strike rate of 19.60.

In the first Test of New Zealand vs England, Ollie Robinson took 7 wickets (Combined of both innings) and also showcased talent with the bat. 

Eng vs NZ Test 

Chasing a stiff target of 273 on Day 5, the odds seemed were in New Zealand's favour as the wicket had seemingly deteriorated and looked to make batting in the fourth innings difficult but the hosts tried to make a match of it as opener Dom Sibley valiantly hung around in the middle. However, despite losing a lesser number of wickets, England failed to get the job done. In the end, England vs New Zealand's first Test was ended up in a draw.         

(Image Credits: PTI/@ECB_Cricket/Twitter)