Fast bowler Ollie Robinson admitted that he wasn’t at his best rhythm yet, despite bagging a five-for that gave England the honours on the opening day of the Leeds Test against Pakistan. Robinson said that his focus was on trying to stay as fit as possible with regular game time, following his second comeback this summer.

Despite making his Test debut in 2021, the ongoing game at Headingley is just Robinson’s 22nd Test, reflective of a career marred by fitness and endurance issues. After an ordinary outing in the Ranchi Test against India in 2024, he was dropped before being recalled for the opening fixture of the summer against New Zealand at Lord’s in June.

Robinson duly responded with a match haul of 7/77 to bowl England to a handsome victory, before being laid low by a knee injury that ruled him out of the second Test at The Oval. He was then left out of the decider at Trent Bridge, which New Zealand went on to win to seal the series 2-1, an omission which he termed “frustrating”.

But he wasted no time in hitting the ground running on Wednesday, striking with the very first ball of the match to trap Azan Awais in front for a duck. In helpful conditions, Robinson displayed expert use of the wobble-seam delivery to walk away with his fifth five-wicket haul in Tests as Pakistan were bowled out for 171.

“It was frustrating not to be able to play at the Oval,” Robinson said after the opening day of the Leeds Test. “Just a bit of a freak training injury and then I was available for Trent Bridge but not selected, and I suppose that’s part of professional sport, isn’t it?”

The Sussex seamer said that he has since worked hard on his fitness, despite not featuring in a red ball game since the Lord’s Test and having arrived in Leeds with a T20 Blast outing and four One-Day Cup games under his belt.

Yet, while admitting that he felt “as good as I’ve ever felt,” he acknowledged that his rhythm could be better.

“I'm probably not in as good a rhythm,” Robinson said. “That sounds silly after [taking] wickets, but I'm probably not in as good a rhythm as I would like, having not played red-ball cricket since Lord's.

“But I think for me, the more I play, the better I tend to get. So as long as I can stay on the park and stay fit, hopefully I can get that rhythm.”

Having made light work of the Pakistan batting lineup, Robinson’s challenge lay elsewhere on Wednesday. With Josh Tongue also bagging a fifer, only one of them could keep the ball as a souvenir. Eventually, they arrived at a simple solution - to split the ball in half.

“You don’t really have too many halves of cricket balls, so it’ll be something that we never forget,” Robinson said.

On the back of Robinson and Tongue’s exploits, England’s post-Bazball era witnessed an excellent start, with the hosts trailing Pakistan by 59 runs having ended the day on 112/2.