Gus Atkinson: first look in Test cricket

2 minute read

We don’t believe you can draw meaningful conclusions from players’ debuts – but we report on them anyway.

Much to admire, but can Gus Atkinson play the reverse sweep? And how grumpy will he be when England’s fielders revert to shelling one chance in three, rather than velcroing-in everything remotely within reach? These are surely the more important questions.

Bowling

In terms of plain old bowling, Gus Atkinson did okay.

A wicket with your second ball can, technically, be improved upon. But not by much.

Similarly, 7-45 could have been 7-35 or 8-45 or whatever. He also had a chance to take a hat trick, but didn’t.

We’d be firmly in the realms of nit-picking if we were to take issue with these elements however – and those aren’t realms we wish to visit. The nit-picking realms are heavily populated with the kinds of sports fans you do not want to engage in conversation.

Never go there.

Celebrating

If there is an area where there would seem to be room for improvement, it is high-fiving.

Monty Panesar remains the high-fiving benchmark for England. Sure, they didn’t all come off, but Panesar delivered a surprisingly large percentage of clean, accurate, percussive hits – particularly when you consider that he invariably attempted to execute them while airborne.

There was no such ambition on display from Gus Atkinson and it was easy to see why.

Just look at this travesty of a wicket celebration.

And that’s executed from a grounded position.

Atkinson’s left hand has made reasonable contact with Stokes’ right. You’re not getting a satisfying palm-to-palm slapping sound with that sort of interaction, but it is at least hand-on-hand.

But his right? Man alive! He hasn’t even hit wrist there. That’s pure forearm, slipping towards elbow upon contact.

You see a horror show like that and you think, “I hope this bowler never takes another Test wicket.”

Alas, Gus Atkinson took six more after this happened – a return that should bring opportunities to attempt a great many more celebrations, what with all the vacancies opening up in the England team at the minute.

> James Anderson’s retirement: Why England will become more watchable without their most watchable bowler

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