Ollie Robinson received no guarantees about his England future from head coach Chris Silverwood after the seamer was indefinitely suspended from international cricket pending the outcome of a disciplinary investigation.
Robinson, now 27, issued an apology for racist and sexist tweets he posted in 2012 and 2013, when he was in his late teens, that were unearthed and shared online on the day he made his Test bow versus New Zealand at Lord’s.
The England and Wales Cricket Board’s suspension of Robinson has been criticised by Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden, who said the decision was “over the top” as he asked the governing body to “think again”.
England plumped for an all-seam frontline attack last week but they have added Yorkshire off-spinner Dom Bess to their squad as cover for slow left-armer Jack Leach ahead of the series decider against the Black Caps.
Bess, who took 12 wickets in the series win in Sri Lanka at the start of the year before struggling for consistency in India, should be able to train with England from Wednesday after 48 hours of managed isolation.
“Jack’s absolutely fine,” Silverwood added. “The reason we’ve added Dom is that any cover we may need has to be in here with us.
“If Jack was to feature, we would need back-up for him, in terms of concussion replacements and things like that. If we are looking at a spinner and Jack gets injured leading into it, then we will need someone else there.”
Meanwhile, England’s players have been fined 40 per cent of their match fees by the International Cricket Council for maintaining a slow over-rate in the first Test, finishing two overs short of the target after time allowances were taken into consideration.
