It was one of those situations that most spectators and anyone overly empathetic simply and comprehensively misunderstand. Gus Atkinson ended day one unbeaten on 74 and having looked phenomenal with the bat in dragging England, with the notable assistance of Joe Root, from 216 for six to an overnight score of 358 for seven. A first first-class century felt within his grasp, but first he had almost 15 hours of downtime to deal with.
It was impossible not to imagine a fretful evening, a night of interrupted, restless sleep, a tight fist of tension settling in his gut through the morning, swelling and clenching and twisting sadistically, and, after all that, it being something of a triumph simply to haul his body to the crease, prospects ruined by the moment’s ripe potential and by being forced to spend so long pondering it.
Clearly these are thought processes that are not conducive to sporting success, and evidently Atkinson did not endure them. When the wait finally ended and his pursuit of a hundred was restarted by Lahiru Kumara at the beginning of day two, he nudged the first ball down the leg side for four and followed that with an impeccable cover drive that took him into the 80s.
By the time that over ended he had also been given out lbw – successfully reviewed, the ball on course to comfortably miss leg stump, Hawk-Eye’s prediction greeted by air punches on the England balcony – and sent an inside edge bouncing just past his stumps, but it was clear that Atkinson was in no way debilitated.
Sri Lanka were again ragged, as they had been in the final session of the first day. Lord’s may be known for the exorbitant cost of entry but in the middle there were freebies, bowlers offering meek invitations to send the ball scuttling over a lightning outfield. Atkinson added four more boundaries and a few more clips for the highlights reel before reaching his century, sealed with a drive past mid-off that brought him to 103 runs off 103 balls, and a couple of balls later absolutely nailed a pull, again off Kumara, with a great deal of class and perhaps a hint of contempt. He was on 118 when he was brilliantly caught in the deep by Milan Rathnayake while taking on another short ball.
Atkinson’s name goes on a third Lord’s honours board, the 26-year-old having already secured a spot on one by taking a five-fer in his first innings as a Test bowler against West Indies last month, and on a second by taking 10 wickets in that match. He becomes the sixth person to earn a place on all three and the fastest to do so: Ian Botham also did it in his second game and in the space of a single summer but after six innings to Atkinson’s four; Chris Woakes took three games and two years; Keith “Nugget” Miller, Australia’s greatest ever all-rounder, nicknamed for his golden touch and the only non‑Englishman on the list, took three games over eight years and got his portrait in the pavilion by way of additional reward; and both Stuart Broad and Gubby Allen needed four games.
“You can’t quite believe it, the names up there who’ve taken five and scored hundreds here, the great all-rounders,” said Atkinson’s father, Ed, who was watching from a box in the Grand Stand alongside Stephen Fry and Mark Nicholas, the MCC’s former and current presidents, as his son moved into triple figures.
Within minutes of his dismissal, Atkinson was back out and getting ready to deliver a few nuggets of his own, though he was less successful at that and in the circumstances it could be excused. He opened the bowling but was swapped out of the attack after just three overs, and though he came back to take the wicket of Dinesh Chandimal, smartly caught by Dan Lawrence at leg gully, Milan Rathnayake hit three of the next four balls for four and after that Atkinson got the following 30 overs off. His second wicket of the innings ended it, but his fatigue is likely to have influenced England’s decision not to enforce the follow-on.
Atkinson’s golden summer is symptomatic of an extraordinary hit rate England have enjoyed with new bowlers since the arrival of Brendon McCullum as coach in 2022. In the previous decade 21 bowlers had made debuts of whom two, Toby Roland-Jones and Adil Rashid, took five-fers in their first games, 9.5% of the total. That was roughly in line with the long-term trend of 8.8% in the 50 years before 2022. Since then the figure is 45.5%, with Tom Hartley, Will Jacks, Rehan Ahmed and Josh Tongue all doing it and Atkinson managing it twice.
Of the other six, Matt Potts took a four-fer and Jamie Overton scored a match-turning 97. As Atkinson’s innings demonstrated, this England team may not have eliminated errors, but they seem to have shredded nerves.
