Ollie Robinson says he is in the best shape, mentally and physically, to play Test cricket again – and a timely text from Brendon McCullum has convinced him that an England recall is realistic this summer.
The 32-year-old Sussex captain last played for the national side in 2024, leaving the stage with 76 wickets at a tidy 22.92 but also with a sense that relationships in the dressing-room had cooled. As England search for a dependable seam leader after a patchy Ashes winter, Robinson is back in the frame alongside Essex’s Sam Cook.
“I had a text from Baz at the start of the season, just to say that the door was still open, which was nice,” Robinson said. “Keysy rang me, as well, to say ‘take wickets, knock the door down’ and there’s still a spot for you.”
Those words – Baz is McCullum, Keysy is managing director Rob Key – landed before the first round of the County Championship. Key then turned up at Hove, watched a spell against Warwickshire and followed up with another message. In Robinson’s words: “Keysy came down to the Warwickshire game, at Hove, and just text me saying how well I bowled, how nice my rhythm looked. It was really nice to hear that from him.”
Form on the field has been steady rather than spectacular: 11 wickets at 28.54, nudged north by a long, unrewarding stint of 1 for 99 in last week’s defeat at Surrey. Yet there was also an unbeaten 100 from No. 9, only the second hundred of his first-class career, dragging Sussex from 92 for 7 to something respectable. That combination of control with the ball and unexpected resistance with the bat is exactly what England have missed since James Anderson and Stuart Broad retired.
Cook, who debuted against Zimbabwe last summer, is posting stronger early-season figures – 15 wickets at 21.73 – but Robinson’s height, high-release point and, perhaps most importantly, his willingness to front up to opposing batters remain attractive to Key and McCullum. One insider put it simply: Cook is metronomic, Robinson is confrontational; England could do with both.
“For me, at the start of the season when I took the captaincy on, I didn’t realise the door was still open. I thought it was closed. It’s definitely spurred me on so far this season.” There is a sense that the job of leading Sussex has grounded Robinson, giving him a channel for the competitiveness that has sometimes spilt over. Friends also note that life away from cricket is calmer after a difficult 2023, when a long-term relationship ended. He now talks of being “settled again” and more comfortable balancing fatherhood with a professional career.
Selectors will announce the squad for the two-Test series with New Zealand during the week of 18 May; the first match is at Lord’s on 4 June, the same ground and opponent that saw Robinson make his Test bow in 2021. The immediate task is straightforward: keep taking wickets against Hampshire at Hove, persuade England that the lingering doubts of 2024 have gone.
Cook, Josh Tongue and the returning Jofra Archer (if fit) complicate the picture, while Durham’s Brydon Carse and Worcestershire’s Dillon Pennington have admirers too. Even so, Robinson’s prior success in home conditions gives him a head-start. A Test average under 23 is not ignored lightly.
As ever, numbers will carry weight, but tone and attitude matter as well under Ben Stokes and McCullum. Robinson insists both are in order. The messages he has already received suggest the people who count believe him – now he has two more Championship rounds to prove them right.
