This is my ranking of England’s Test opening bowlers of the last 50 years. Far and away the most important criterion is how much use they make of the new ball, because that sets the tone for the whole innings and match.

Did not see much of the new ball until James Anderson and Stuart Broad retired, but made good use of it when he had the chance, with his stock outswinger and occasional inswinger, blended with wobble seam in his later years.

A fine outswinger, delivered from a high release point as he was 6ft 4in, made for a fine body of work through the 1980s. He would have been even more effective if English cricket had not been so chaotic, with players called up and dropped à la Pakistan nowadays.

He would open England’s bowling but did not need the new ball much. His assets were pace and, above all, bounce – while his action made the majority of his deliveries seam into the right-hander.

He used the new ball beautifully – mainly for outswing, occasionally inswing – until he was over-bowled and lost impact. At his initial peak he outswung the ball as much as anyone conventionally. His overall career profile is much like Ollie Robinson’s: 101 wickets at 29 in England, another 30 abroad.

Swung the new ball a lot for a tall opening bowler: he could pitch it on leg stump, curve it as an outswinger, and make it rise towards the ribs. Much more impactful in the second innings of a Test, once he had relaxed and was not competing too hard with Darren Gough, when his average descended from 37 to 20.

With a maximum of choreography, and puffed-out chest, Gough charged in à la Fred Trueman and led the attack, especially in Australia, where he averaged more than five wickets per Test, the benchmark of great bowlers. The first England bowler to master reverse as well as conventional swing.

History may come to identify him as the first England bowler to have specialised in wobble seam. For certain he was the perfect opening partner, the one who modestly deferred to Frank Tyson then Trueman and allowed them the choice of ends, bearing in mind the wind and slope.

A wonderful outswinger, which he generated from the middle finger of his right hand, not the index finger, which James Anderson and other orthodox swingers have used. He made it work though, at home and abroad, and had equal effect outside England. His cutters would then come into play.

Like his fellow Yorkshiremen Hoggard and Gough, he relied principally on his outswinger – after an initial burst as an outright quick. His action was the old style: classical, sideways-on, which has gone completely out of fashion, partly to prevent injury to lesser backs and spines.

He was England’s pioneer in the tactic of switching to round the wicket to attack left-handed opening batsmen – above all, of course, David Warner, whom he dismissed 17 times. It became laser-like targeting by the end of their duelling. Had he pitched the ball fuller and straighter at right-handers, his strike rate per Test would have been closer to four wickets.

There appeared nothing he was unable to do when he came into the England side. Of course some of the opposition was poor as Kerry Packer had denuded the ranks of several nations for his World Series Cricket, but his outswinger still had a paralysing effect, and his bouncer was quick enough to stop still-helmetless batsmen pushing forwards. He damaged his back, in a fatuous Somerset game at the Parks in April 1980, and only recovered his outswing on odd occasions, but until then he was superlative: 139 wickets in his first 25 Tests at only 18 runs each. 

Such was (and is) his expertise that he can be acclaimed as the first England bowler to have mastered swing-and-seam bowling. In the first half of his career he swung the ball both ways, then with time he acquired all the techniques of seam bowling. If there was a drawback, it was that he became too keen on containment, instead of forcing the batsman to play the new ball.

A master of all the techniques of swing and seam but always ready to bowl a fuller length and a more challenging, straighter line than Anderson. These attributes set Robinson apart as the king of new-ball bowling in England in the course of his opening spells. He was lucky to arrive at a time when wobble seam was being developed – bowlers through the ages have used the method, like Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, but only since 2010 has it acquired the name – but he not only cashed in, he has raised it to a new level of excellence.

With the wicketkeeper standing up, he has gone to an even higher level, as the batsman can no longer take guard outside his crease to minimise the risk of lbw or run down the pitch to knock him off his length. The next two challenges are for him to have the same impact in England in his third and fourth spells, and the same impact overseas as in England.