As England nursed the collective disappointment of their sequence defeat, head coach Brendon McCullum defended Ollie Robinson after a tricky first outing in India. But Robinson finds himself at one other juncture in a Test profession solely in its third 12 months, with questions remaining about his robustness.

Robinson had been primed for a pivotal function throughout the backend of this five-match sequence, and England pulled the twine for the fourth Test in Ranchi after spectacular showings within the nets. The choice didn't repay.

Despite beginning the match with a maiden Test fifty, which helped propel England to a primary innings of 353, Robinson disillusioned with the ball. His common pace was within the late 70s mph - at one level, he dipped into the 60s - and there was nowhere close to the extent of incisiveness that 76 Test wickets at 22.92 present he can present. He additionally bowled six no-balls, persevering with a tough relationship with that entrance line.

Robinson despatched down simply 13 overs within the match, all of them within the first innings, earlier than dropping Dhruv Jurel on 59, which allowed India an additional 41 runs of their reply. He was subsequently hidden within the discipline, and went unused within the second innings as England tried in useless to defend a goal of 192. It was a chastening return to motion after nearly eight months.

Speaking after the match, Ben Stokes stated Robinson was match to bowl and {that a} spinning monitor was the explanation he was not utilised. But contemplating he has beforehand proven excellence on a wide range of surfaces, alongside together with his self-stated need for the warmth of the battle, it felt like a lack of religion from the England captain in the direction of a participant he had seemingly coaxed out of a funk in his first summer season as Test captain.

McCullum, nevertheless, revealed Robinson was carrying an harm he picked up whereas batting, which explains his listless spell with the ball: "He actually twinged his back while batting in the first innings, which is why in those initial couple of spells, he was down on pace. We saw the following day when his back improved a little bit his pace got up to where it normally is."

The head coach went on to vouch for Robinson, whose final aggressive match was the summer season's third Ashes Test at Headingley - the place his involvement was curtailed by a again spasm - however appeared at a loss to elucidate how such a well-planned choice had backfired.

"I don't think it was too soon, it was seven months since his last Test so if anything, it's probably too long between," McCullum stated. "Everything he did leading into the Test match suggested we'd see not just the Ollie Robinson we'd seen previously but a better version of it.

"For one purpose or one other it did not fairly work out for him and clearly he is not simply as disillusioned as everybody else, he is probably the most disillusioned out of everybody. Our job is to verify we get round him and ensure we give him as a lot assist and confidence to have the ability to go once more when the following time arises. It's simply sport proper? You have nice expectations and typically you are not fairly capable of ship."

Amid a sea of multi-year central contracts, Robinson's 12-month deal was aimed at motivating him to show he was worthy of a longer-term investment in the next cycle. Now a player who was supposed to replace Stuart Broad - even usurping Broad at points during his first 18 months as a Test cricketer - may find himself further down the pecking order, though McCullum suggested he retains his faith.

"It's a tricky sport for him little question and he is hurting loads. We've all seen Robbo bowl higher than what he did and he'll be the primary to confess that. We've simply bought to get round him and ensure he chisels out just a few of these issues that did not work effectively this week. We know he is an excellent bowler. His report suggests he is bought expertise and it is simply ensuring that we are able to launch the expertise so he can get to the degrees he needs to get to.

"We know how skilled he is and we know his high release point and ability to move the ball off the seam and the skills he possesses are good enough for this level. We've just got to make sure we find a way to get the best out of him."

England should not innocent. They know he's a bowler who wants overs to be preventing match, particularly contemplating the prolonged hole between appearances.

Robinson's earlier Test look got here throughout the Ashes in July•AFP/Getty Images

The vacationers opted in opposition to warm-ups and engaged in what was a vastly optimistic pre-season camp in Abu Dhabi. But in hindsight, it might have been useful to get Robinson time within the center, which might have include England Lions. Their third match in opposition to India A in Ahmedabad began the day earlier than the second Test through which James Anderson performed because the lone fast in a spin-heavy assault.

The administration have been additionally blindsided forward of the tour when Robinson introduced a brand new podcast together with his companion, Mia Baker, a golf influencer. The pair have recorded episodes all through the tour and, whereas largely innocuous, England, who train a level of inventive management over the extra-curricular actions of their contracted gamers, have been irked by a few of the content material, notably when Robinson talked about the ECB had initially made an error together with his visa software. The revelation got here at a time when the governing physique was scrabbling round to type Shoaib Bashir's visa problem, which resulted within the Somerset offspinner arriving every week late, lacking the primary Test.

The sixth episode, launched this week, through which Robinson mentioned the group's mid-series break in Abu Dhabi, has subsequently been eliminated.

Whether Robinson performs the fifth Test in Dharamsala stays to be seen. Conditions extra amenable to seam counsel he might get a shot at redemption, although it appears doubtless England will persist with Shoaib Bashir and Tom Hartley together with Anderson, who is 2 away from 700 profession wickets.

"Yes he'll be playing his hundredth Test. We expect a good Jonny. Jonny loves a milestone too. He won't shy away from that. He'll play. It'll be really emotional for him.

"Everyone is aware of Jonny's story and as you guys will know he's fairly an emotional character at instances and large milestones like that do imply loads to him. It'll be a extremely emotional time for him and we look ahead to sharing it with him."

The majority of the squad headed to Bangalore on Tuesday morning to get their golf fix. A smaller group - including Stokes - will make their way to a resort in Chandigarh on Wednesday, with the only concrete plan a trip to the cinema to watch Dune 2. They will meet back up together in the foothills of the Himalayas next Monday, ahead of the start of the concluding Test on March 7.

While England will look to take a creditable 3-2 scoreline home, McCullum hopes it will be the start of a new, more ruthless chapter for his charges. Having spurned opportunities in the Ashes and now again here, the time has come to learn from those mistakes.

"We weren't fairly ok when it mattered - or they have been higher, to be trustworthy, than us being not fairly ok. Against Australia, we had our probabilities and weren't fairly capable of get throughout the road. This group continues to be creating as a group. We're a very good cricket group. I believe we have the chance to be a extremely good cricket group.

"There's times in games where we haven't quite screwed down on our method just yet. I still think sometimes we get outside the element of what needs to be done in the moment... or we have too much noise in our mind, so we need to find a way to be really totally present when those times arrive, identify that this is a crucial moment in the game, and try and strip away all the external stuff and just make a decision, and make it work.

"If we try this, I believe we'll see this group go to the following stage. We're going good. We've misplaced this sequence and we did not win the Ashes - however we're a greater cricket group than we have been 18 months in the past. And we have the chance within the subsequent 18 months to do some fairly particular shit."

Vithushan Ehantharajah is an affiliate editor at ESPNcricinfo