{"id":686737,"date":"2026-05-22T06:10:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T06:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/686737\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T06:10:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T06:10:14","slug":"cricket-2026-england-v-new-zealand-squad-first-test-ollie-robinson-recalled-stuart-broad-comments-ashes-vs-australia-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/686737\/","title":{"rendered":"Cricket 2026 | England v New Zealand squad first Test: Ollie Robinson recalled, Stuart Broad comments, Ashes vs Australia, preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former England<\/a> fast bowler Stuart Broad<\/a> has claimed recalled quick Ollie Robinson would have skittled Australia<\/a> for 30 in the Boxing Day Test … if he had played.<\/p>\n

Robinson has been recalled to the England fold for the first Test against New Zealand starting next month.<\/p>\n

The match will be England’s first Test since the 4-1 Ashes<\/a> loss, and Robinson’s first since he was dropped following England’s 2024 tour of India.<\/p>\n

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Broad, who claimed 604 poles for the England during a glittering Test career, said Robinson had seemingly fallen out of favour with head coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes and was “a little bit surprised” he had been recalled.<\/p>\n

\"England's<\/p>\n

Ollie Robinson, Stuart Broad and James Anderson in 2022.\u00a0PA Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

“There must have been a turnaround \u2013 I think Robbo said at the start of the summer there’d been a bit of contact [with England],” he said on his For The Love of Cricket podcast.<\/p>\n

“I suppose the confusing thing for me is, if he’s good enough to open the bowling (in June) against New Zealand at Lord’s, which he is \u2013 he’s a brilliant bowler \u2013 why was he not at the Ashes?<\/p>\n

“He’d have bowled Australia out for 30 at the MCG with how much that pitch moved. It feels like a complete waste to not use him over the winter in Australia if suddenly he’s now available and able to be used at Lord’s.”<\/p>\n

Robinson’s Test career has to-date been marred by injury niggles and fitness concerns, but is superb when fit. From his 20 Tests, the 32-year-old has 76 wickets at an average of 22.92.<\/p>\n

Against Australia, Robinson has played seven Tests for 21 wickets at 26.9, with best figures of 3-55.<\/p>\n

Following his recall for the New Zealand Test, England’s director of cricket Rob Key said Robinson was “back to his full fitness”.<\/p>\n

“When you look at his record, he is of the bowlers right up there statistically, among all the bowlers, of all time,” he said.<\/p>\n

Aiding his selection is Jofra Archer’s unavailability for the first Test due to IPL commitments. He is expected to be in the fight for a recall for the second Test at The Oval.<\/p>\n

Broad said he was intrigued by the “turnaround” of Robinson’s relationship with McCullum and Stokes that had led to the recall.<\/p>\n

\"Ollie<\/p>\n

Ollie Robinson in action for Sussex in April.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“Has he suddenly improved his fitness or improved his attitude because he was never left out because of performance,” said Broad.<\/p>\n

“Not that these guys have ever said this to me, I thought McCullum and Stokes had lost faith and lost trust and that was the end of that.<\/p>\n

“I suppose it’s probably a case of who else will take the new ball? The new-ball bowling in the Ashes was awful and they need a new-ball bowler.<\/p>\n

“There’s no doubt Ollie is the best new-ball bowler available to England in the country at the moment. He has amazing ability to get the new ball to talk and he gets bounce.<\/p>\n

“Rob Key said he’s a world-class bowler at 82-83mph and the test for Robbo is if that 82-83mph stays over three Tests and for every spell without him going off or missing sessions.<\/p>\n

“Not many bowlers get another chance when you have been written off for character and attitude.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former England fast bowler Stuart Broad has claimed recalled quick Ollie Robinson would have skittled Australia for 30…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":686738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-686737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=686737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/686738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=686737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=686737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=686737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}