Compton was under pressure from the emergence of Joe Root and his first innings duck, which followed a steady, if unspectacular, tour to India.

But he can now look forward to a chance to play against Australia this summer, 50 years since his grandfather, Denis, hit the runs which win the Ashes at the Oval in coronation year.

Despite a nervous start he ended the day 102 not out after setting an England record opening stand against New Zealand with Alastair Cook, who scored his 24th Test hundred typically leading from the front after his side’s first innings disaster.

“To get to this moment is something special,” said Compton, who added 231 with Cook for the first wicket. “I never thought I would be sitting here right now with a Test hundred. I kept believing it even though it has been a long time. It is a strange feeling.

“I was well aware of that [pressure]. Joe is a fantastic talent. He has played brilliantly over the last year. You don’t need to read the press. You instinctively know what you need to do.

I felt this innings was very important and I needed to pull something out. It was great that I could. I will probably look back and wonder how it happened but I just tried to keep my head down and focus.”

His father, Richard, was picked out by the television cameras at the ground in tears as Compton reached his century.

Compton said the family have had a hard time in recent years, his sister Alex was left paraplegic after a car accident five years ago, and the weight of the occasion was palpable as he batted through the 90s.

A direct hit would have run him out on 94 when he went for a risky single and he almost edged a seaming delivery from Tim Southee when he was three short of his hundred.

But a single tucked through midwicket off Southee brought up his century and an outpouring of relief shortly afterwards.

“I was holding back the emotions,” he said. “It was one of those where I was itching to have a flap at the spinner [to get to his hundred] before the new ball but obviously the bigger picture – drawing the game – was something Cooky reminded me of. I managed to reign myself in. I tried to hold my nerve and here I am.”

Compton is always proud of talking about his grandfather, Denis, but this is his time and he understandably wants to forge his own identity in cricket.

“I am sure it is nice to do something my grandfather did but right now I am happy for myself and obviously my family,” he said. “I had a few family issues back home. I am proud he [father] is here and to give that to both my parents to take home with them.”

He described Cook’s pre-match assessment of his opening partner’s intense character as a “fair appraisal”. There have been many players with the talent to succeed but unable to free themselves from the pressure to thrive in Test cricket and there were fears Compton was heading the same way.

He has waited a long time for his chance, spending a decade on the county circuit, and you sensed it would have been a crushing blow to him if he had let this chance to play in the summer’s Ashes series slip by.

But now an English Ashes summer is likely to again feature the name Compton.

“You just don’t want to let yourself down,” he said. “It is something you have worked towards for a long time and want to make most of the opportunity. This is a great England team to be part of and you want to stay part of it too.

“I have always been someone who has analysed myself quite a lot and probably to my detriment, but in some ways it has also got me where I am. That hunger that drive. I had a lot of time to think in the field [about his first innings duck].

It is a good wicket out there. I just had to find a way. It was not always pretty. I knew I had it in me. It was just something I needed to prove to myself. How you get them doesn’t really matter as long as you have got them.”

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