Gus Atkinson

Everything's gonna be hunky-dory.

England are gonna sail through this." Um, how wrong I was because it only took 24 hours from that moment on to find out what had happened in the rec rooms, and that began that chain of events that led to Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson first missing the second test, Stokes coming back for the third test against New Zealand, retiring on that crazy Sunday at Trent Bridge.

Two weeks later, after that series that was lost, Brendan McCullum was sacked as the test coach.

He remains as the, as the white ball coach.

Yeah, I mean, uh, Cook is right.

I think, uh, Cook and Fisher are the kind of Ollie Robinson kind of backup.

Uh, you got Brydon Carse and Sonny Baker, uh, Jofra Archer, Josh Tong kind of backup, uh, and Gus Atkinson.

And then you start looking at, uh, kind of formation.

I think Razaullah hit him for three sixes, and-

No, that was e- Gus Atkinson was three.

Oh, he hit Gus Atkinson.

And then-

But he took Ollie Robinson off fairly soon.

... by, by accident.

Um, but I don't think I would, like, hold that one session against them in any way.

And I think they, if you get them, if you keep them fit and you keep them together, even Gus Atkinson, who had the most horrendous...

something.Yeah. Um, like I say, they only really had three bowlers that did all the damage.

They got all the wickets, right? Um, what did Atkinson get, four, um, in 67 overs?

Yep.

And three of them right at the end.

Um, so Ac- the ...

What happened with Atkinson is I couldn't believe it, and, and I said this at the time, how many wickets Atkinson got at the start of his career.

It was a miracle.

Um, the run's more believable for me, but the, the amount of wickets he was getting and the strike rate at which he was getting them was incredible, and that was just luck.

I think otherwise you can kind of shape things.

Um, you might, the, the four-man attack is the four-man attack I would be taking forward, but there are guys around it who you could bring in for, for Gus Atkinson or say, who, who struggled a bit for wickets in that series.

So yeah, I think the cricketers are there, uh, in every department apart, probably apart from spin at the moment.

Um, and there's something to move forward with.

You're all out.

Yeah, that's true.

Um, the other bowler I just wanted to touch on quickly was Gus Atkinson, who had a, has had a slightly bizarre series.

Um, I think I messaged you at one point during the test saying, "I think it's genuinely harder to have a bowling average over 150 in this series than seven." Um, because obviously you had Ollie Robinson at one end of the scale and poor old Gus Atkinson not taking any wickets.

Yes.

And Gus Atkinson, no wickets, but the other three wrapping up the innings with 3-3 and 4.

And Olly Robinson, again, immaculate.

The top order very much demolished between him and Archer, right? So, for now, you say, okay, it's going along predictable lines.

Like he's looked hopeless.

A top scorer of 17, he's been outscored by Joffre Archer, Josh Tong, Gus Atkinson, Olly Robinson.

These are not players that your opening batter should be being outscored for.

An average of 8.8 is the second lowest ever for an opening bat for a three-match series, or more than a three-match series, in the history of England Test cricket.