Ollie Robinson reveals England head coach Brendon McCullum's message after Ashes opener loss to Australia

England fast bowler Ollie Robinson revealed head coach Brendon McCullum's message to the team following their narrow two-wicket defeat to Australia in the first Ashes Test in Birmingham.

Australia chased 281 in the fourth innings, courtesy of a gritty knock by Usman Khawaja (65 runs off 197 balls), complemented by the calmness of Pat Cummins (44*) and Nathan Lyon (16*) in their unbeaten 55-run stand for the ninth wicket.

England were competitive throughout the five days under their new brand of cricket, 'Bazball,' adopted under captain Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum. However, they finished as the second best team on the final day as they failed to take the last two wickets when Australia were 54 runs away in the final hour.

McCullum tried to boost the team's morale after the narrow defeat. Writing in his column for Wisden.com, Ollie Robinson said:

"Baz just said, 'Lads, I’m immensely proud of the efforts that you’ve put in, we’ve made the game what it was. We were so close to pulling off an unbelievable victory. We played all the cricket in the game. If it wasn’t for us, the Australians wouldn’t have even had a chance to win'."

"We felt like we had a hold on them" - Ollie Robinson on Australia's defensive approach

Australia entered the Test match with a plan to counter England's Bazball approach. Skipper Pat Cummins used defensive field placements to deny boundaries, with the bowlers' sticking to disciplined lines to pick wickets.

Robinson admitted that England assumed that they would get ahead of their rivals after seeing their defensive field placements.

The England pacer wrote:

"We were surprised to see Australia so defensive from ball one. You just don’t see the Australians cautious and on the back foot like that. As soon as we saw the field for that first over, we felt like we had a hold on them."

Robinson also labeled the pitch as docile over the course of five days. He added:

"We felt like we had to move the game on to give ourselves time to try and bowl Australia out. But let’s be honest, even if the pitch had done a bit more, we would have played the same way. We will always take the aggressive option. And that’s what we saw over those five days on a pretty docile wicket."

England and Australia will resume the 2023 Ashes in the second Test on June 28 at the iconic Lord's Cricket Ground in London.