Robinson crowned Player of the Summer

Ollie Robinson has won the Rothesay Men’s Test Player of the Summer after finishing top of the PCA MVP Rankings.

The newly established leader of the England bowling attack, Robinson has taken 28 wickets at an incredible average of 9.32 in his four games against New Zealand and Pakistan.

England began the summer with a 115-run win over New Zealand at Lord’s but eventually fell to a 2-1 defeat during a period of significant transition, with Joe Root returning to the captaincy. Another three-match series saw England breeze past Pakistan, securing the 3-0 victory with an eight-wicket win at Edgbaston.

The PCA’s MVP system compares player performances against expected outcomes for each match, adjusting for venue conditions using CricViz data. The result is a ball-by-ball ranking designed to reflect true performance.

Robinson emphatically re-launched his international career in a seam-dominated summer, becoming the first bowler to be crowned Men’s Test Player of the Summer since Stuart Broad in 2020, after wins for Harry Brook in 2025 and Root in 2024 and 2023.

Starting the Summer as Sussex captain, the 32-year-old went on to earn 152.69 MVP points in Tests after taking 28 wickets. Incredibly, he finished as the Match MVP in three of the four games he played, his highest match total of 41.62 points coming in the second Test against Pakistan. With the bat too, a half-century from 47 deliveries at Edgbaston helped England to a convincing series win.

It was with new ball in hand that he dealt the most damage, though, taking two five-wicket hauls and two four-fers in seven innings. England’s four wins this summer have come only when Robinson has played.

His electric return to the Test side saw him take a triple-wicket maiden in his first England over since February 2024, his first Test wickets since June 2023. He went on to take 5-39 from his 10.5 overs, with 2-38 in the second innings earning him 39.74 MVP points in the England win.

It was the first innings of the following series against Pakistan where he took his second five-fer, earning 34.59 points alongside his 5-51, as England went on to win by an innings and 103 runs.

After England secured the Pakistan series win at Edgbaston, Robinson was awarded his Rothesay Men’s Test Player of the Summer trophy. On winning the award, he said:

“It’s been very special. It’s always nice to get a 3-0 win.

“I thought I’d never play for England again so to get the opportunity this summer and grab it with both hands has been amazing.

“I’ve got that inner drive and new ambition to push on, I know the hard work’s not done yet, there’s still a lot to do, we’re just getting started.”

England white-ball captain Brook finished second after racking up 122.71 MVP points. Scoring 432 runs at an average of 43.2 with five half-centuries, the Yorkshireman also took 13 catches across the summer, earning an impressive 26 fielding points.

He came closer to a century than any other English player in the Pakistan series, crashing 91 from 93 balls in England’s only innings of the first Test.

Nottinghamshire quick Josh Tongue finished third with 113.05 MVP points, after a prolific summer of 27 wickets as part of England’s impressive quartet of seam bowlers.

The 28-year-old took 5-46 in the first innings of the first Pakistan Test, a joint haul with Robinson as both combined to take all 10 Pakistan wickets at Headingley.

Brook leads the England Men’s Overall MVP Rankings on 242.34 points, 84 points ahead of Jofra Archer in second.

The men’s Test squad are back on the field on 17 December in Johannesburg for a hotly anticipated three-match series against South Africa. That series will be followed by a one-off Test against Australia in Melbourne to mark 150 years of Test cricket ahead of a home Ashes series next summer.

View the final Test and Overall Men’s International tables here.

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