England vs New Zealand: Ollie Robinson’s road to redemption gets off to a perfect start at Lord’s.

Robinson was dismissed for 24 tries. In that time, 13 other men have capped Test cricket for England. Fourteen, if you count Harry Brook’s wrong-footed part-time junk.

Robinson spent the Ashes playing club cricket in Sydney, mainly to work on his game, but also to be in the right position if England needed him. How many bowlers would have to go down for Robinson to get the call, especially given that the reserve Lions team was also in Australia. Maybe 15, even 20?

But necessity is the mother of invention or, in this case, the mother of reinvention.

Downtrodden in Australia, England were in desperate need of an attacking leader, a reliable tone-setter.

This winter will be the first since 2007 that none of James Anderson, Stuart Broad or Chris Woakes will play a Test for England. They threw in the possibility that Mark Wood would never play another Test and that meant the four cornerstones of England’s pace attack took 1,609 wickets in three years.

So England reached out to Robinson, who told him that he was back on the radar at the beginning of the summer. Already matured with his captaincy, Robinson is on the verge of international recognition.

Those at Hove speak highly of an opportunity Robinson once thought was gone. Additional training sessions conducted on and off the field in the confusion of point deductions for financial matters. The bowling was in good order, and there was even a crucial century with the bat against Surrey.

When the Englishman was recalled, director of cricket Rob Key called Robinson “one of the best bowlers in the world”. McCullum “shut the door”, Stokes challenged Robinson to “stay here as long as he can”.

On a dark and emotional Thursday at Lord’s, Robinson rose to the challenge.

England were bowled out for 140 by a good New Zealand spinner and all of Key, McCullum and Stokes must have wondered if the Ashes rebuild would be reduced to rubble. Salvation came from the naked man.

With the clouds hovering, rain threatening and shivering, Robinson was the perfect horse for this course.

Running in from the end of the nursery, he hit the ball off the mound to left fielder Devon Conway.

The third ball. Front panel. Fingers up. Robinson’s eyes welled up with joy, Conway was shocked by the assessment that enough stumps were being cut.