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

Here's to you, Ollie Robinson - England need you more than you will knowTo play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.This video can not be playedFigure caption, How's that for a return?! Robinson takes three wickets in first over in two yearsByStephan ShemiltCricket Correspondent at Lord'sPublished3 minutes agoPaul 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 quest...