Ollie Robinson Claims Best Bowling Average in Modern Test History

At Lord’s, where bowlers are judged without mercy and remembered without pity, Ollie Robinson quietly crossed a line that separates the very good from the truly rare.

With a four-wicket burst that ripped the heart out of Pakistan’s resistance on the fourth afternoon, the England seamer moved his Test bowling average to around 19.5 – enough to slip past Jasprit Bumrah and claim the best average of any bowler with at least 20 Tests in the last 100 years.

Not just in this era. Across the modern age.

A number that changes the conversation

Robinson began the day already among the most efficient seamers of his generation. By stumps, the numbers had hardened into something more imposing.

At the time of reporting, he sits on 99 wickets from 23 Tests, spread across 43 innings, at an average of 19.53. His best innings figures remain 5/39, but the broader picture is what now demands attention: no bowler to debut after 2000, and play at least 20 Tests, has a better average.

Bumrah, the previous standard-bearer of the era, has 234 wickets from 52 Tests at 19.79, with best figures of 6/27. Elite company. Robinson now sits just above him.

Look further back and the scale of the achievement sharpens again. Among bowlers with a minimum of 20 Tests, only names from cricket’s sepia-toned past stand ahead of him on the all-time average charts:

• W Barnes: 51 wickets at 15.54
• SF Barnes: 189 wickets at 16.43
• R Peel: 101 wickets at 16.98
• J Briggs: 118 wickets at 17.75

Then comes OE Robinson: 99 wickets at 19.53.

The gap between eras is enormous – uncovered pitches, timeless Tests, very different demands – but the raw numbers still tell their own story. Robinson is now sitting in a room usually reserved for ghosts.

Lord’s stage, ruthless spell

The landmark arrived not in a dead rubber or a quiet session, but in the heat of a chase that had briefly threatened to unsettle England.

Pakistan, set 389 to win the second Test, had slumped to 14/3 before Saud Shakeel and Shan Masood dug in. What followed was a stubborn, increasingly irritating stand worth 97 runs that stretched across almost four hours and dragged the game into awkward territory for the hosts.

Shakeel played the lead. He counter-attacked, reaching his 15th Test fifty from just 54 balls and pushing on to 78 – Pakistan’s highest score of the innings and his second half-century of the series. Masood, by contrast, went into survival mode, scratching his way to 26, more intent on occupying time than chasing the target.

England’s seamers, Robinson and Jofra Archer among them, had earlier looked ready to run through the middle order in helpful conditions. Instead, as the ball aged and the partnership swelled, frustration began to creep in. England’s bowlers repeatedly asked the umpires to inspect the ball. The crowd quietened. The chase, still distant, started to feel less theoretical.

Then Robinson came back.

Smith up to the stumps, Robinson into the book

Jamie Smith moved up to the stumps, a clear statement of intent. England wanted Masood pinned, both physically and mentally. Robinson obliged almost immediately.

He speared in an inswinger that beat Masood on the inside. The on-field decision was not out. England rolled the dice with the review, the replay showing the ball striking him in line with leg stump. The lbw verdict followed, the partnership finally broken. Pressure, built over hours, released in a single frame.

Pakistan never really recovered.

Robinson, sensing the moment, went again. Mohammad Rizwan tried to impose himself with a swat across the line, missed, and wore the ball in front of the stumps. Another lbw. Another dent in a chase that was now collapsing in on itself.

By tea, Pakistan were 140/5, still miles from 389. Robinson had 4/24 in the innings and eight wickets for 35 runs across the match. England were within touching distance of victory; Robinson was within touching distance of 100 Test wickets.

Shakeel’s 78, for all its defiance, now looked like a lone act in a fading cause.

A modern outlier

The numbers will provoke debate. They should. A 19.53 average after 23 Tests is not supposed to happen in an era of flat decks, heavy bats, and relentless scheduling.

This is not a bowler padding his figures in one-off bursts. Robinson has now played 23 Tests, shouldered long spells, and maintained a level of control and threat that places him, statistically at least, alongside the most ruthless operators the game has seen in the last century.

His best figures – 5/39 – do not scream of freakish single-day hauls, but of a bowler who chips away, session after session, match after match. The kind who quietly wins you series.

At Lord’s, in this Test, that quiet work turned into something louder. A stubborn stand broken. A chase strangled. A historic average sealed.

One more wicket will take him to three figures. The question now is not whether he belongs on the list with Bumrah and the greats of the past.

It is how long he can stay there.