This is going to be a rather strange series.

England have an old-new captain, and a new-new but absent coach. The country’s cricket community feels in an existential sort of mood post-Hundred, mid-drought, and pre-Stephen Fleming, Their opponents Pakistan arrive with low expectations. On paper, it’s a battle of seventh and eighth in the world, with both sides searching for a bit of context — and a bit of meaning.

As England rattled through Pakistan, dismissing the visitors for just 171, they may have stumbled upon something meaningful. As Ollie Robinson took 5-51, his second five-wicket haul in as many Tests since returning to the side, Root appeared to be finding the leader of his new attack.

The challenges of bowling at Headingley are unique, and plentiful. Some are mental: this is a ground where teams bowl first, win, and as a new ball bowler you are expected to drive that victory.

Some are more technical: the average seamer dismissal here in the last decade is 6.7m from the batting stumps, the fullest for any English venue. The established pattern of play in almost all long-form cricket is the cat-and-mouse over ownership of fuller lengths, a test of bottle for bowler and patience for batter, but rarely is it more pronounced than in Leeds.

Robinson was more than up to the challenge.

Ollie Robinson took a wicket with the first delivery of the series (Stu Forster/Getty Images)

A wicket first ball of the match was the perfect way to re-announce himself having been out of the limelight since the first Test at Lord’s earlier in the summer. There has been a fair bit of water under the bridge in English cricket since then. For Robinson, it was simply a case of picking up where he left off after those seven wickets against New Zealand back in June.

That dismissal — round the wicket, angling into the left-hander’s pad — set the tone for an authoritative display of skilful, accurate bowling.

It soon accounted for Shan Masood; Robinson now over the wicket, typically his preferred angle of approach to left-handed batters, once again in full, and moving, and deadly. His average length in that opening spell was 6.3m, marginally fuller than that designated Headingley danger-zone. The difference was explained by Robinson’s more pedestrian bowling speed.

In helpful conditions — the opening session of an England Test hasn’t seen such seam movement in over two years — he sat back and let the ball do the work.

Ollie Robinson’s pitch map (CricViz)

That is not always how we have seen Robinson bowl.

While his stats at Test level have been excellent since his debut back in 2021, the nature of his threat has changed profoundly. On the first day at Headingley his average degree of swing movement (0.4 degrees) was less than half what he managed in that first summer five years ago. His movement off the surface is unrecognisable compared to his earlier incarnation.

Much like James Anderson, Robinson’s technical journey is one that has taken him from the youthful allure of pitched-up swing to the altogether more reliable qualities of accuracy and seam. Specifically, to wobble-seam.

By presenting the ball not with the proud, upright seam that was sought after by generations of fast-medium bowlers, Robinson looks to bring in an element of random chance, letting a scrambled seam land and deviate the ball in either direction. Often a huge distance. Indeed, 39 per cent of Robinson’s deliveries in Test cricket move a “large” amount off the surface. Nobody can beat that.

The the trajectories at which Ollie Robinson’s deliveries passed the stumps (CricViz)

No doubt that is aided by conditions — the Dukes ball and the typical surfaces for English red-ball cricket — but the combination of this exceptional movement and Robinson’s control of line and length is unmatched, as shown below.

There are better, perhaps more versatile bowlers going around, but Robinson’s threat is rarely seen.

What stood out on the first day, though, was a shift in Robinson’s role; a recasting of English cricket’s trouble-child as the responsible leader of the attack, tasked with guiding the white-ball tearaways back into the world of the red ball.

If one image of a leader is striding out in front of their pack, facing new challenges and environments head on, then another is rather less glamorous but just as important. In this mould, Robinson is the general staying behind and waiting for his troops, preparing the plans for their return. Hello lads, good to have you all back from The Hundred. A good length is right over here.

For much of the day, they either didn’t listen or couldn’t make that change.

Archer was a good metre short of that ‘Headingley-length’, unable to threaten the stumps with more than a handful of deliveries and lacked the insistent control of line which typifies his best Test performances. Atkinson bowled quickly and was England’s fastest bowler of the innings, but was also too short.

Tongue bowled well to pick up late wickets, claiming the fourth five-wicket haul of his 13-Test career, but it was a spell of moments rather than an accumulation of pressure in helpful conditions. Just 36 per cent of his deliveries were on a good length, the lowest of any bowler on either side on day one.

Tongue’s strength is that he can take a different route to Robinson, and end up in the same place, walking off raising the ball to the crowd.

If England are going to make a success of their new strategy, whereby spin is confined to the part-timers, they need two things to work. They need enough of their all-format fast bowlers to be fit simultaneously, and they need the skills of those who happen to be fit on any given day to overlap.

Robinson is fundamental to both those things. Sheltered from the white-ball matches that seem to sandwich every Test series, he is also flexible enough — counter to popular opinion — to remain threatening in all phases of the innings. His second spell, with Jamie Smith up to the stumps, yielded two wickets just like his first, but was arguably more important. England can build an attack around this version of Robinson.

For Root, the man with a second chance at the once in a lifetime job, getting this right is essential. They say a captain is only ever as good as his attack; that attack will only be as good as Robinson allows it to be.

Data and visualisations provided by CricViz.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – A.J. Brown didn’t even have to break stride on his crossing route when Drake Maye’s pass hit him in the hands. There was room to run in front of him, and Brown took off down the sideline.

At any New England Patriots practice, it would’ve been a fun moment, the kind that gets the fans on their feet. But on this day, everything Brown did carried a little extra weight.

So it mattered a little more that the Patriots’ passing offense carved up the Vic Fangio-led Philadelphia Eagles secondary. It mattered that, today at least, Brown perfectly fit the role the Pats hope he will.

This was the franchise’s vision all along. This was the reason the Patriots were the only team willing to send a first-round pick to the Eagles for Brown. The hope was that he’d help take a really good offense to the next level. And if Wednesday’s joint practice outside Gillette Stadium was any indication, everything is right on schedule.

“He’s making my job a lot easier,” Brown said of Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. “He’s creating matchups for me, moving me around.”

A year ago, frustrations with Philadelphia’s offense prompted the trade to New England. But for the Patriots, the move came with plenty of risk. A first-round pick is a steep price for a receiver who will turn 30 next summer and is coming off a down season (78 receptions for 1,003 yards, the second-lowest total of his career).

The hope was that he’d be a true No. 1 option for Maye. That when Maye was in a pinch, he could turn to Brown.

That happened on Wednesday. At one point, the Eagles flew through the New England O-line with a blitz, and Maye had next to no time. He threw off his back foot in Brown’s direction, and the receiver came down with the ball.

But for the most part, things were in rhythm for the Pats’ starting offense, which diced an Eagles secondary that had a rough day.

There are still plenty of questions about the New England offense, and Wednesday’s practice was not perfect. There were some issues in pass protection and blitz pickups, and it’s difficult to know when a play would’ve resulted in a sack in practices like these when tackling the quarterback isn’t allowed. And the running game didn’t appear to have a ton of room in which to operate, though, again, it’s tough to evaluate when running backs aren’t tackled.

Still, there have been enough rough moments to be concerned about the run game.

While the addition of Brown drew the biggest headlines this spring, the Patriots’ big offseason goal was to improve the running game. They feel like they’re going to face more two-high safety looks, and they need to be able to take better advantage of that on the ground.

On a day like Wednesday when the passing offense looks like it could be the best in the NFL, could the run be the only thing to slow this offense?

“It’s probably hard to tell,” coach Mike Vrabel said. “I think it could always be better. But it’s not live, so you don’t know if guys break tackles and receivers are trying to come get safeties that are 3 yards from the line of scrimmage. … I think that there’s a fine line there in trying to figure out what the run game looks like and what it will look like, and there’s been some good runs. There’s been some times where it’s been one guy, but still not a very good play.”

So while the run game remains the concern on offense, the passing game has looked good enough in these August practices to overcome any early hiccups there.

Brown burnt his former team with relative ease. Romeo Doubs made an incredible catch over a defender in the end zone. And Maye spread the ball around, showing off his accuracy with passes over the middle of the field.

“He’s very special, and he makes my job a lot easier, and just learning how he sees the game, and just getting on the same page,” Brown said of Maye. “ … He has a lot of arm talent. He can place the ball anywhere.”

Wednesday was also a reminder of how far the Patriots have come in a couple of years. In August of 2024, the Eagles came to these same practice fields and dominated the Patriots in embarrassing fashion, a precursor of the 4-13 season that followed for New England.

A couple of years later, the Patriots are Super Bowl contenders. And if the passing attack keeps playing the way it did on Wednesday, the Pats again could be busy in February.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – A.J. Brown didn’t even have to break stride on his crossing route when Drake Maye’s pass hit him in the hands. There was room to run in front of him, and Brown took off down the sideline.

At any New England Patriots practice, it would’ve been a fun moment, the kind that gets the fans on their feet. But on this day, everything Brown did carried a little extra weight.

So it mattered a little more that the Patriots’ passing offense carved up the Vic Fangio-led Philadelphia Eagles secondary. It mattered that, today at least, Brown perfectly fit the role the Pats hope he will.

This was the franchise’s vision all along. This was the reason the Patriots were the only team willing to send a first-round pick to the Eagles for Brown. The hope was that he’d help take a really good offense to the next level. And if Wednesday’s joint practice outside Gillette Stadium was any indication, everything is right on schedule.

“He’s making my job a lot easier,” Brown said of Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. “He’s creating matchups for me, moving me around.”

A year ago, frustrations with Philadelphia’s offense prompted the trade to New England. But for the Patriots, the move came with plenty of risk. A first-round pick is a steep price for a receiver who will turn 30 next summer and is coming off a down season (78 receptions for 1,003 yards, the second-lowest total of his career).

The hope was that he’d be a true No. 1 option for Maye. That when Maye was in a pinch, he could turn to Brown.

That happened on Wednesday. At one point, the Eagles flew through the New England O-line with a blitz, and Maye had next to no time. He threw off his back foot in Brown’s direction, and the receiver came down with the ball.

But for the most part, things were in rhythm for the Pats’ starting offense, which diced an Eagles secondary that had a rough day.

There are still plenty of questions about the New England offense, and Wednesday’s practice was not perfect. There were some issues in pass protection and blitz pickups, and it’s difficult to know when a play would’ve resulted in a sack in practices like these when tackling the quarterback isn’t allowed. And the running game didn’t appear to have a ton of room in which to operate, though, again, it’s tough to evaluate when running backs aren’t tackled.

Still, there have been enough rough moments to be concerned about the run game.

While the addition of Brown drew the biggest headlines this spring, the Patriots’ big offseason goal was to improve the running game. They feel like they’re going to face more two-high safety looks, and they need to be able to take better advantage of that on the ground.

On a day like Wednesday when the passing offense looks like it could be the best in the NFL, could the run be the only thing to slow this offense?

“It’s probably hard to tell,” coach Mike Vrabel said. “I think it could always be better. But it’s not live, so you don’t know if guys break tackles and receivers are trying to come get safeties that are 3 yards from the line of scrimmage. … I think that there’s a fine line there in trying to figure out what the run game looks like and what it will look like, and there’s been some good runs. There’s been some times where it’s been one guy, but still not a very good play.”

So while the run game remains the concern on offense, the passing game has looked good enough in these August practices to overcome any early hiccups there.

Brown burnt his former team with relative ease. Romeo Doubs made an incredible catch over a defender in the end zone. And Maye spread the ball around, showing off his accuracy with passes over the middle of the field.

“He’s very special, and he makes my job a lot easier, and just learning how he sees the game, and just getting on the same page,” Brown said of Maye. “ … He has a lot of arm talent. He can place the ball anywhere.”

Wednesday was also a reminder of how far the Patriots have come in a couple of years. In August of 2024, the Eagles came to these same practice fields and dominated the Patriots in embarrassing fashion, a precursor of the 4-13 season that followed for New England.

A couple of years later, the Patriots are Super Bowl contenders. And if the passing attack keeps playing the way it did on Wednesday, the Pats again could be busy in February.