Gus Atkinson hails ‘natural ability with the bat’ after maiden first-class century

Gus Atkinson declared his belief that he has “so much natural ability with the bat” after he scored his maiden first-class century and only the second of his career in all formats – after an effort for Surrey’s second XI in 2018 – to help England to take control of the second Test against Sri Lanka at Lord’s.

Atkinson has the lowest batting average of the 20 players to have represented Surrey in this year’s County Championship, with 6.71 after eight innings, but averaged 40 and 50.25 in the past two seasons and believes that he has the potential to excel with the bat for England.

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“I’ve been frustrated with my batting this year,” he said. “I haven’t really scored many runs for Surrey at all but I know how good a player I can be and I feel I’ve got so much natural ability with the bat. Hopefully I can remember what I did today and yesterday and take it forward. Obviously moving forward I’m going to score as many runs as I can.

The 26-year-old made 118 as England ended their first innings on 427, but he was the least used of their four seamers as Sri Lanka made 196 in response. After declining to enforce the follow-on England reached stumps on 25 for one, and with a lead of 256.

“I’m not really used to batting for so long and then having to bowl,” Atkinson said. “I’d thought about batting so much yesterday and then overnight and this morning as well, so coming out to bowl I had to change that mindset and it took me a bit of time to adjust. Moving forward I’m going to try to score as many runs as possible and that’s something I’ll hopefully have to get used to.”

Kamindu Mendis again top scored for Sri Lanka, with 74, and said his team had not given up hope of winning the game: “If we can get some early wickets and get them all out for a low total, after that if we bat well in our second innings, who knows what will happen in cricket?”