It’s a scandal that Robinson became such a scapegoat
IT did not sit comfortably at the time. An England coach calling out one of his players publicly at a time when he was at his most vulnerable and the demand for a scapegoat was at its most intense.
Was Jon Lewis really acting in the best interests of Ollie Robinson, recalled by England yesterday for the first two Tests against South Africa, and the team when he questioned his fitness during the final Ashes Test in Hobart earlier this year?
Or was the fast bowling coach covering his own back as the inquest into another Ashes debacle began and the demand for heads to roll escalated?
Certainly, it did not appear to do a hugely talented bowler, who has had a difficult start to his Test career, much good.
Robinson left that Hobart Test with a back spasm, but it emerged that the injury was more serious when a similar issue curtailed his involvement in England’s warm-up game in Antigua, and then the whole West Indies tour.
When more stiffness in his back ruled Robinson out of a county select team to face New Zealand at Chelmsford ahead of the first Test this summer, it became clear that he had joined the long list of England bowlers ruled out with serious back problems. But the Sussex seamer was the only one who had his fitness for purpose questioned.
Add serious dental work, a bad bout of Covid and food poisoning and it is obvious Robinson has had wretched luck with injuries and illness after a breakthrough international summer last year when he took 28 wickets and was named one of Wisden’s five cricketers of the year.
And that after his first day in Test cricket was overshadowed by the emergence, exposed at the most damaging time possible in an example of modern ‘journalism’ at its worst, of historical racist and sexist tweets he sent as a teenager. The trouble for Robinson since Hobart has been fighting against a narrative, created in part by Lewis, that he lacks the elite fitness demanded at the highest level.
Perhaps that is why he felt the need to pull out of matches when his back became stiff, because the last thing he needed was to break down during another high-profile clash.
But things have taken a turn for the better. Robinson returned last week, now fully fit after an injection in his back and a lengthy spell of rehab, and took nine wickets for Sussex in their Championship defeat by Notts.
Now he has been included in that 14-man England squad to face South Africa this month and will get the chance to stake his claim to play in the first Test when he is named in the Lions team to play the tourists in a four- day game at Canterbury next week.
How Robinson deserves a change in fortunes, and how an England team devoid of so many injured bowlers will need him in the weeks and months ahead, starting perhaps in the three-Test series that begins at Lord’s on August 17.
He may suffer more injuries in the future. Most fast bowlers do.
But he is a Test-class bowler and does not need to be labelled as unfit as he begins the next chapter, at 28, in what should still be a highly successful international career.