Ollie Robinson: ‘I felt I was never going to play cricket again’

“‘I was at a point where I thought: ‘This is make or break’,” Ollie Robinson says as he describes the first of two different debuts that helped shape his transition from confusion and loss. The 29-year-old fast bowler will be one of England’s key players when they face Australia in the opening Ashes Test next Friday – but a shocking early death and a public shaming shroud those contrasting games from his past.

“I didn’t have much to lose,” Robinson says as he continues the story of his Sussex debut in April 2015. “I might have got out for nought but I had to try and put on a show and get my name back out there.”

Robinson was 21 then and, in a curious way, his youthful bravado echoes the way England currently play Test cricket. The previous summer he had been sacked by Yorkshire for his lack of professionalism and also turned down by two other counties. His cricketing future was at risk and when Sussex finally gave him a chance he came out as a No 9 batsman with his team floundering at 145 for seven.

“We were struggling on a green wicket at Durham and I’d only been at Sussex a week,” he says. “I got a few away early, built my confidence and Matt Hobden came in [at No 11]. We soon were having a laugh and, before I knew it, I was on 60 and Matt on 30.”

They set a record 10th-wicket stand of 164 for Sussex. Robinson’s 110 in 112 balls, followed by four wickets in Durham’s first innings, secured him a Sussex contract. Yet he was devastated when, less than nine months later, Hobden died suddenly in January 2016. He was 21.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Robinson says. “That night I dreamed about Matt and woke up crying. It was really tough and I spoke a lot to Matt’s mum, Emma, as we leant on each other. Matt and I had got really