The Lord's Honours Board is a place where legends and their legendary performances get immortalized. However, not every great of the game manages to find a place on the prestigious board and therefore to be able to make your presence felt thrice in a space of two months can feel surreal and England's budding bowling allrounder Gus Atkinson knows more about that feeling than anyone else playing international cricket at the moment.
Having made the board twice in his debut Test against West Indies in July with two five-fors in both innings, Atkinson scored his maiden Test hundred at Lord's in the ongoing second Test of the three-match series against Sri Lanka and got his name registered among batting greats on the honours board.
"It's amazing," told an elated Atkinson to ECB after his maiden Test hundred which helped England post 427 in their first innings.
"As a boy growing up, I always dreamt of getting on the Lord's honours board. To be honest, I never thought I'll be up there for a hundred. So to be up there is special."
"It's hard to choose between the two but to score a Test century at Lord's, it felt like...you're out there for three hours and whatever, and it's a long process scoring a hundred. And obviously, I'm more of a bowler. So to be up there for batting, it's very special," he said, when asked to choose between his five-fors and Test century at Lord's.
The good thing about Atkinson is that he wants to stay grounded despite the early and remarkable success that has come his way so early in his young Test career.
"You try and take these moments, you don't want to take them for granted. How difficult it is to score a Test hundred and how difficult it is to take 10 wickets, and thankfully it has happened to me quite early. But I'm not going to get too far ahead of myself and I know how hard the game can be. I'm looking forward to the future and hopefully, I'm doing well."
