England's Gus Atkinson Finds Himself Among Old Legends After Claiming 12-Wickets on Debut

England demolished the West Indies to claim an innings victory in the first Test at Lord’s on Wednesday. Gus Atkinson managed to outshine his veteran compatriot James Anderson as the 26-year-old made quick work of the Windies batter claiming a 12-wicket haul on debut.

He was quick to get his maiden wicket by dismissing the visiting skipper, Kraigg Braithwaite in just his second delivery into his Test career. The momentum keeps going up for the quick bowler.

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Born in London, playing at the iconic Lord’s Cricket ground in your Test debut, it could not get any better than this as he went on to claim as many as seven wickets at the end of the first innings. The highlight of the first day was that he struck gold with three wickets coming in the 35th over of the innings where Atkinson lit up the Carribean batters.

Atkinson now has the third-best match-haul of 12 wickets for 106 runs which is trailing behind the likes of Bob Massie who took 16 and Fred Martin who took 12/102 during their respective debuts.

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Following the first innings heroics, many expected that Anderson would step up to the plate and he sure did with the veteran rolling back the years and showing why he is still amongst the very best despite playing his final game. The 41-year-old finished with three wickets, but it was Atkinson who once again stood up.

Atkinson finds himself in the record books once again as his 12-match haul now sits at the third amongst the best figures recorded by an Englishman on their respective Test debut.

He dominated through the start of the third day while Anderson looked to end the game with a wicket as the latter aimed to go past Shane Warne as the second-highest wicket-taker. Nevertheless, Atkinson might have indirectly spoilt the party as he went ahead and finished with five wickets to help England take the series lead.