Gus Atkinson - too fast and furious for West Indies

“What’s your dream debut?” 

Ask any English bowler that question, and more often than not, the answer will be a five-wicket haul.  

But how about going one better — taking a five-wicket haul AND getting your name on the iconic Lord’s Honours board?

Not too many can boast such an answer. But again, not too many are built like Gus Atkinson. 

He’s fast, furious and, more importantly, England’s future. When England decided to hand Atkinson a Test cap, there were a few eyebrows raised. Until the start of 2024, Atkinson hardly played red-ball cricket, with just 14 matches across four years, picking up 45 wickets. 

What’s more astonishing is the fact that Atkinson picked up 36 of those wickets in the 2022 and 2023 seasons combined. Even then, however, he remained more on the outside than within reach of a Test selection. 

In 2023 alone, that tally of wickets read 20, impressing the selectors. But it wasn’t enough. That’s when the Surrey pacer went one step ahead, bowling thunderbolts and delivering wins for the county in the 2024 season, scalping 14 wickets and averaging 29.78 despite bowling on some of the flattest wickets in the country. 

That was enough to seal him a place in this Ben Stokes-led English side. They were no longer playing it ‘safe’; their idea of cricket was all about employing fire to combat the fire. That’s where Atkinson’s pace came in at the most opportune moment for the Three Lions. 

Constantly can clock 140 kmph ✅

Mean bouncer ✅

Accuracy ✅

Whatever you can ask from a Stokes-era prototype pacer, Atkinson had it all. 

But the real test often comes out there on the field. It took the Surrey pacer just two deliveries to vindicate his selection in the first Test at Lord's when he removed the opposition skipper, Kraigg Brathwaite. Only Matthew Fisher had achieved a similar feat (wicket in two balls) back in 2022 against West Indies. 

After troubling Kirk McKenzie, Atkinson hooped the ball around to sting Mikyle Louis, West Indies’ best batter in the Test. It wasn’t wayward, it was pinpoint and pesky. That’s what accounted for McKenzie, with the ball moving away slightly from the batter to catch his outside edge. 

Three overs, three maidens and two wickets. Atkinson was doing something on a wicket where even someone with the miles as James Anderson struggled. When the ball wasn’t hooping traditionally, he took to wobble seam to confuse Alick Athanaze, who looked totally at sea against the pacer. 

In his first spell at Lord’s, Atkinson delivered one of the most memorable performances, finishing with figures of 2/2 with four of his five overs being maidens. While he did take a big beating post-lunch, conceding 18 runs in the first three overs, he delivered the killer blow in the 35th over of the innings.

Atkinson got the ball to move slightly away from Athanaze, planting all kinds of doubts in the left-hander's mind. Caught in two minds, Athanaze poked at the ball without using his feet too much, all due to the bowler's accuracy.

Courtesy: SonyLIV

After gobbling three wickets, the Surrey man returned with a stunning seam-up delivery that moved away from Jason Holder, catching the right-hander by total surprise. 

This time around, it wasn’t pace or change of it. It wasn’t a bouncer. It was pure intelligence and a good read of the game. 

A delivery later, he changed that up with his fingers now moving across the ball, pushing it into the right-handed Joshua Da Silva. Da Silva hung his bat out, thinking it was going to be a delivery away from the body. But that’s where Atkinson combined trickery with speed. 

Dead by daylight. 

Atkinson eventually picked up a sixth and seventh wicket on the day when he removed Alzarri Joseph and Shamar Joseph, but his spell showed what speed combined with accuracy can do. It can kill. 

Seven straight overs after lunch while still bowling with an average pace of 86.5 miles/hour without huffing and puffing. 

7/45, the second-best spell for an English bowler on Test debut. It was the third-best-ever figures for a bowler in his first bowling innings in Tests, behind Bob Massie (1972) and Kyle Abbott (2013). 

The day might have started with England allowing James Anderson to lead the team, but it ended with Gus Atkinson leading the English side on the back of a stellar response. 

Too fast, too furious and too real to be true, Gus Atkinson is ready to spearhead an English future.

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