Surrey fast bowler Gus Atkinson who made his international test debut in the 1st Test of the West Indies tour of England 2024 almost breaks 128 years record with his seven wickets haul in the 1st inning.
England Cricket Board(ECB) have named two debutants in their playing 11 for the 1st test vs West Indies in Lord’s, London. The right-arm fast bowler Angus Alexander Patrick Atkinson and WK-Batsman Jamie Smith are the two debutants named in the England playing 11.
Gus Atkinson picks seven wickets in his debut Test game
In his very first appearance in an international red ball match, Gus Atkinson made a historic bowling spell by bagging seven wickets for 45 runs.
Gus Atkinson’s 7 wickets for 45 runs was the 11th best figure in an innings by a Test debutant and the second best from an England player behind Dominic Cork, who took 7 wickets for 43 in 1995, also against West Indies.
Atkinson also becomes the fifth England bowler to bag a five-wicket haul on debut under Ben Stokes’ captaincy. Josh Tongue, Will Jacks, Rehan Ahmed and Tom Hartley are the four players to achieve this feat before Atkinson.
A debutant’s dream! 😍
Atkinson on 🔥 @HomeOfCricket#ENGvWI Day One Highlights 👇 pic.twitter.com/t6xXg0Ywzp— England Cricket (@englandcricket) July 11, 2024
Apart from Atkinson, James Anderson, Chris Woakes and captain Ben Stokes each bagged a wicket and contained West Indies for 121 in the first inning.
Following the performance of Atkinson in the first test vs West Indies, former England captain Sir Andrew Strauss said on Sky Sports: “This has been sensational from Atkinson. It has been fast, accurate and intimidating at times as well. He has been very, very impressive. He has varied his length and on a slow pitch, he has looked threatening in a way the other seamers have not. It has been phenomenal to watch.”
“He’s got some X Factor about him” 💬
Sir Andrew Strauss on Gus Atkinson, who has ranked third for the best bowling figures on Test debut 🏏 pic.twitter.com/mH77R9l6Is
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) July 10, 2024
On the other hand, England Ashes hero Michael Vaughan believes Atkinson benefited from ‘going under the radar’ in the build-up to the first Test of the summer, which was dominated by Anderson’s imminent retirement.
“All the build-up around Jimmy might’ve helped the likes of Gus Atkinson and Jamie Smith because they’ve gone under the radar a bit, it’s allowed them to just crack on. But that’s a very promising start from Atkinson. He bowled with good zip and pace at the first time of asking. For a long time now England have wanted to build this crop of fast bowlers and he has delivered”.
“From West Indies’ point of view, that was poor. Yes, they are inexperienced, but they are better than that. There were some poor shots, the decision-making wasn’t there”.
“It was always going to be the case that their batting line-up was going to be the weaker point but they have got such a good bowling attack, that if they can manage to put some runs on the board at some point, they will cause problems”, he said on BBC Test Match Special.
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