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EnglandAll-rounder
Gus Atkinson
- Age
- 28y 281d
- Bats
- Right-hand
- Bowls
- Right-arm fast
- From
- Chelsea
- Age
- 28y 281d
- Bats
- Right-hand
- Bowls
- Right-arm fast
- From
- Chelsea
Gus Atkinson, whose full name is Angus Alexander Patrick Atkinson, is an English fast bowler who stands 6'2 and plays his domestic cricket for Surrey. He approaches the crease with an unhurried run and a quick action, and he generally operates somewhere between 135 and 145 kph. He may not be the fastest bowler in an England group that includes Mark Wood, but he gets enough skid and speed to hurry batters. Rather than leaning on conventional swing and seam movement, he frequently bowls with a scrambled seam, even when the ball is new. His usual method is to build pressure with tight, repeatable lines and lengths and then strike with a sharp bouncer or a fast yorker.
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His first taste of international cricket came in a T20I against New Zealand in September 2023. He claimed 4/20 in that game, the best return by an England player on T20I debut, followed it with two more wickets in the next match, and ended the series as England's top wicket-taker. His ODI debut, also against New Zealand, was much less rewarding: he went wicketless and conceded runs at an economy rate of nearly 7. He was named in England's squad for the 2023 World Cup, but with Wood, Chris Woakes, Reece Topley, Sam Curran and David Willey also available, he played only two matches.
Atkinson's Test career began at Lord's in July 2024 against the West Indies, in the match that marked James Anderson's farewell. He took 7/45 and 5/61 for match figures of 12/106, earning two places on the Lord's Honours Board and posting the best figures by an England debutant in 134 years. Later that summer he also made his mark with the bat, hitting a century against Sri Lanka at Lord's. He took plenty of wickets across the season and has gone on to become a regular in the Test side, helping to cover the gap left by Anderson.
Away from bowling, Atkinson has shown he is a capable lower-order batter, with a first-class average of about 20 and several half-centuries. He plays for the Oval Invincibles in The Hundred and was in their 2023 title-winning squad, and he has also appeared in the ILT20 and the PSL. In 2024 KKR bid INR 1 crore for him, but after talks with the ECB he withdrew to manage his workload.
