Here's to you, Ollie Robinson - England need you more than you will know

To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. This video can not be played Figure caption, How's that for a return?! Robinson takes three wickets in first over in two years By Stephan Shemilt Cricket Correspondent at Lord's Published 4 minutes ago Paul Farbrace has a gag about how Ollie Robinson came to be Sussex captain. Farbrace, the Sussex head coach, realised he had not got his step-son a decent Christmas present, so offered him the county captaincy instead. It's a nice line. The truth is that Sussex wanted to get the absolute best out of their champion bowler and reasoned it would come through more responsibility. Around the same time, England were getting their quadrennial shellacking in Australia. Among the myriad of English plans to fail down under was the idea of hitting the Aussies with high pace and hostility. And so Robinson and England were once again set on convergent paths, culminating in his comeback for the ages on day one of the first Test against New Zealand. With three wickets in his first over in an England shirt for more than two years, Robinson added his own moment of history to a Lord's ground celebrating its 150th Test. He reannounced himself as an international bowler, gave life to England's post-Ashes rebuild and quite possibly provided precious breathing space to the management that once discarded him. It is 829 days since Robinson last played for England and 1,069 since he was last able to celebrate a wicket. To look at Robinson's statistics would shed no light on the reason for his absence. A return of 76 wickets from 20 Tests at an average below 23 with a strike-rate better than 50 is world-class. But England decided that Robinson was not worth the hassle. On his Test debut in 2021, he was discovered to have made racist and sexist social media posts as a teenager. On the Ashes tour of that winter, his fitness was publicly questioned by then England bowling coach Jon Lewis. Robinson was on the outside when the Bazball revolution began in 2022, yet, by the end of that summer, Robinson, calling himself a "gym freak", was a fixture under Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes. The harmony lasted little more than a year. Robinson suffered a back problem in the Headingley Ashes Test of 2023. When he returned in the fourth Test against India in Ranchi the following year, Robinson was struck by more back issues and dropped a crucial catch. Off the field, he had gone through the break-up of a relationship and England were not impressed by a podcast he made with new partner, the golf influencer Mia Baker. McCullum and co had had enough. Robinson ready to put in hard work after dream return Published 2 hours ago Stunning Robinson return gives life to England Published 3 hours ago Robinson was exiled for 24 Tests. In that time, 13 other men bowled seam in Test cricket for England. Fourteen, if you count Harry Brook's wrong-footed part-time filth. Robinson spent part of the Ashes winter playing club cricket in Sydne