‘Smashed it’: Atkinson earns praise from Pope after taking 5-62 to join England’s elite | England v Sri Lanka 2024

England stand-in captain Ollie Pope paid tribute to Gus Atkinson as his pace bowler – or should that be all-rounder? – secured his team a series win against Sri Lanka. After a maiden hundred on the second day, Atkinson, the player of the match, was back on the plate at Lord’s with five for 62 on the fourth and final day. He joined Tony Greig and Ian Botham as the third England player to take a five-fer and score a century in the same men’s Test.

“He’s clearly smashed it in his Test career so far,” Pope said of Atkinson, who now averages 18.06 with the ball and 32.66 with the bat in his five Test career. Lord’s has proved a particularly happy hunting ground for the 26-year-old, after he took 12 wickets on debut here against West Indies.

“I think, especially with the Lord’s slope, that’s something where you can challenge both sides,” Pope said. “And I would say that’s the reason “He’s had so much success here. Anyone who’s working towards that 90 mph mark with a bit of swing… I’m sure people have seen him throw a heavy wobble ball, which is a bit close as well.”

Atkinson himself felt he had bowled better in England’s previous Test series against the West Indies. “I think the Hundred took more out of me than I thought because I was mentally exhausted,” he said. “But today I felt like I had more energy, so I bowled much better and was able to carry that forward in the second innings.”

Pope described England’s performance against Sri Lanka, which wrapped up the series in eight days, as “very satisfying”, adding: “As a team this is exactly where we want to be. We want to turn our good positions into great positions.”

His personal failure to contribute with the bat since taking the captaincy – he scored one and 17 in this match, after scores of six and six at Old Trafford – has attracted much debate, which Pope said was not surprising. “It’s just important to block it out and stay close to the people around you. There are a lot of voices, a lot of guys who want to have their say, some former cricketers as well.”

After the first day of this second Test, the BBC’s Michael Vaughan called Pope “an insecure human being” and “not the kind of personality” he wanted as England captain. Pope said: “Sometimes when you have two bad games it can almost feel a lot worse than it is because of the noise around it. So for me it’s just trying to stay as even-keeled as possible and keep trusting the people around me, put in the work and not think about it too much.”