There may never have been a better moment for Ollie Robinson to have made his return to Test cricket than the summer of 2026.

As he sat beside Joe Root at Sunday evening’s post-match press conference at Lord’s, it felt like a symbolic alliance, an official welcoming back into the England fold after more than two-and-a-half years in the wilderness.

Even his first Test back, against New Zealand at Lord’s in June, was followed by a mini-hiatus. First a knee injury ruled him out of the second Test at The Oval. Then, with Trent Bridge expected to be flat and temperatures punishing, old doubts resurfaced. Did Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes trust their man to pull through? They did not.

Only when Root resumed the captaincy on a full-time basis did the next phase of Robinson’s career properly begin. And to the seven for 77 he took against New Zealand, he has since added eight for 80 against Pakistan at Headingley, and a ridiculous eight for 35 off 27 mainly unplayable overs at Lord’s. He has been player of the match in all three, improving his career-best match figures each time.

With the third Test at Edgbaston still to come and England eyeing a whitewash, his summer’s work amounts to 23 wickets at 8.34 – the kind of numbers more normally associated with cricket from the 19th century, when batting techniques were rudimentary and pitches even more of a lottery than Lord’s has been of late.

Of the five Tests England have played this summer, they have won the three in which Robinson has appeared, and lost the two in which he has not. The evidence is beginning to suggest it is no coincidence.

There may never have been a better moment for Ollie Robinson to have made his return to Test cricket than the summer of 2026

Joe Root has backed Robinson and the rewards have come – he has been player of the match in all three Tests he has played this summer

So where has it all gone right? In essence, several factors have come together at the same time, allowing Robinson to make the best use of his height and accuracy, as well as the wobble-seam tactics that leave bowlers as unsure as batsmen which way the ball will deviate.

For a start, Robinson’s three Tests have all taken place in favourable conditions: two at Lord’s, where the sideways movement has been lavish and the bounce variable, and one at Headingley, which on a cloudy day remains the spiritual home of English swing and seam.

Then there’s the mediocrity of the Pakistan batting lineup, which is yet to reach 200 in four innings this summer, and has managed only two half-centuries. On and off the pitch, the tourists are a shambles.

Finally, this year’s batch of Dukes balls is proving especially helpful. Root suggested after his side’s 194-run win on Sunday that they now have a lacquer on the seam itself, and that its hardness has created dents in the pitch for the bowlers to exploit. By way of evidence, he said bats were being cracked in practice. Dukes deny they have done anything differently, but Root – who keeps getting out lbw – disagrees.

For tall, accurate seamers like 6ft 5in Robinson, hammering the ball into the surface time and again and waiting for the deviation has become cricket’s answer to the Chinese water torture. Of his 23 wickets this summer, 11 have been lbw and five bowled.

But it would be unfair to ascribe all his success to external factors. After all, in the three Tests Robinson has featured in this summer, his haul of 23 wickets at 192 has outstripped Josh Tongue’s 18 for 250, Gus Atkinson’s eight for 164 and Jofra Archer’s eight for 175. And, of the quartet, only Robinson now boasts a Test average below 20 – the first England bowler with at least 50 wickets to do so since Frank Tyson in the 1950s.

Most importantly, perhaps, he now feels comfortable in his own skin. The wisdom in the Bazball era, often made explicit by managing director Rob Key, was that he was no good to man nor beast while operating at 75mph, but among the best in the world at 82mph.

Yet Robinson is slower now than when he first played for England, five years ago. His average speed so far in this series is 78.12mph, the least rapid of the ten Test series in which he has played, and more than 4mph slower than his quickest: 82.74mph against South Africa in 2022.

For tall, accurate seamers like 6ft 5in Robinson, hammering the ball into the surface time and again and waiting for the deviation has become cricket’s answer to the Chinese water torture

His new-ball alliance with his Jofra Archer (left) has proved a mesmerising study in contrasts – Robinson threatening their pads, stumps and outside edges, Archer examining their reflexes

Even this summer, he has eased up as he has gone along: an average of 79.50mph against New Zealand, followed by 78.39 against Pakistan at Headingley and 77.82 at Lord’s – closer to what the management previously regarded as the unacceptable end of the spectrum. Thanks to the existence of his 90mph colleagues Archer, Tongue and Atkinson, it is a scenario about which both he and England are intensely relaxed.

‘Being able to be my own bowler and not trying to be too attacking has definitely helped,’ said Robinson after Lord’s. ‘With those guys at the other end, it does allow me just to sit in, be very consistent, be very patient, which is my super strength. I probably wouldn’t have picked up those wickets in this series without those other guys.’

In particular, his new-ball alliance with his Sussex colleague Archer has, for Pakistan, proved a mesmerising study in contrasts – Robinson threatening their pads, stumps and outside edges, Archer examining their reflexes and ticker. Equally, Robinson’s economy-rate this summer of 2.4, meaner than any of his team-mates, has meant that the absence of a frontline spinner able to keep opponents in check has not mattered.

Might England have fared better in the Ashes last winter had he been available? We’ll never know, though Robinson himself said he wasn’t match-ready. But he says he has worked harder than ever on his fitness, while Stokes and McCullum, who became so wound up by his attitude during the tour of India in early 2024 that they washed their hands of him, are no longer on the scene.

Not that Robinson intends to lapse into the complacency of old. ‘We’ve just got to be careful we don’t get too comfortable in this four-man attack,’ he said. He seems a more perceptive cricketer now, in more ways than one.