The ‘dumb’ Stokes-McCullum mistake that set England back two years ...Middle East

Day 2: Pakistan 133 & 52-2 (Robinson 2-10) trail England 453 (Brook 75, Smith 69, Lawrence 65, Robinson 50; Razaullah 4-148) by 268 runs

“I still say to people now, I don’t really know what happened for me to have just gone straight away. If I’m brutally honest, I’m still a bit confused as to what happened for me just to be disregarded.”

It’s almost six months since The i Paper sat down with Ollie Robinson for this interview at Hove back in March. With every Test wicket he has taken since, England’s decision to freeze him out for more than two years looks dumber and dumber.

As England stand on the brink of a 3-0 series whitewash against Pakistan, Robinson’s tally across the summer now stands at 28 at an average of 7.75.

Overall, Robinson’s career average of 18.83 is the lowest by any bowler with at least 100 wickets since the Second World War.

Only India’s Jasprit Bumrah, with 234 wickets at 19.79, is close.

It makes England’s treatment of him following the 2024 tour of India even more baffling.

Worse, they chose to leave him out when fully fit for the final Test of the Bazball era against New Zealand at Trent Bridge in June.

Key to this story is the distrust and scepticism former coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes had in Robinson.

It was partly down to his injury record – he pulled up with a back issue during the Ranchi Test against India in early 2024 – and a personality clash off the field.

100th Test Match wicket for Ollie Robinson! pic.twitter.com/5086Dqe038

Even after he was called up for the first Test of this summer against New Zealand at Lord’s, where he took seven wickets and was named man of the match, his history with the previous regime counted against him after he reported soreness in his right knee ahead of the next test at The Oval.

Who knows if he’d have been recalled for these Pakistan Tests if McCullum and Stokes were still around. Both departed after that series defeat by the Black Caps.

Yet now, under a new captain in Joe Root and incoming coach in Stephen Fleming, England will build their attack around a bowler whose action looks as natural as any who has come before him.

When he first got into the Test team in the summer of 2021, the hope always was that he could become the successor to James Anderson, England’s greatest bowler.

Now, despite being presented with a feeble Pakistan batting line-up in this series, Robinson looks ready to step up to that mantle.

This winter will truly Test whether he has what it takes to sustain this golden run of form beyond the summer.

The fitness work he put himself through midway through this summer, taking almost a month off playing for Sussex to get his body right, will have to be replicated between now and the start of the next series against South Africa in December.

Facing a far superior team, the world Test champions no less, will mean he is likely to have to come back for third and fourth spells in searing heat. It will be a test in every sense.

But the 32-year-old will relish the challenge given only last winter, he was playing grade cricket for the University of Sydney rather than opening the bowling for England in the Ashes.

In a series where Australia’s medium-pacers Scott Boland and Michael Neser took 35 wickets between them, how much of a difference would a fit and firing Robinson have made?

We’ll never know. Yet the perception he is not effective away from home is just plain wrong, with a respectable return of 26 wickets at 28 across 10 matches in Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand and India.

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Robinson’s true legacy will likely be defined by how he fares in next summer’s home Ashes. But his performances this winter should be key to how this team fares in South Africa, Bangladesh and, for March’s one-off 150th anniversary Test, Australia.

For now there is still a Test match to win.

When Robinson struck twice in the first over of Pakistan’s second innings on day two in Birmingham, the tourists were nought for two in their second innings with a deficit of 320.

England will look for him to finish them off on day three here. It appears inevitable – something Robinson has looked all summer.

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