England Test pace bowler, Gus Atkinson, made a surprise appearance for Surrey in their One Day Cup game against Worcestershire today (August 26), in which he made an equally surprising move up to bat in the middle order.
Atkinson has been involved with Oval Invincibles during their Hundred campaign over the last month, but has so far only played in one match for the table-toppers. He played in their game against Northern Superchargers at the weekend, returning figures of 0-25 off 10 balls. Given that the Invincibles have finished their league matches, Atkinson was released to play for Surrey in the One Day Cup – just his third List A game for his home county. Surrey have endured an inconsistent campaign, in which they've lost half of their matches and currently sit in sixth place in the South group table.
After Surrey were put into bat first at New Road, they quickly slipped to 50-2 by the end of the powerplay as Ben Foakes was dismissed by Khurram Shahzad off the final ball of the 10th over. By the time captain Ollie Sykes was dismissed shortly after the halfway point, Surrey were 125-4. Despite still having lower-order batter Nikhil Gorantla in the hutch, Atkinson strode out to the middle at No.6.
Gus Atkinson is playing his third List A game for Surrey and he unleashes this monster for six!
— Surrey Cricket (@surreycricket) August 26, 2025
Lovely shot Gussy.
Surrey 140/4 with 20 overs remaining.
Watch live: https://t.co/bYCCROPtWt
🤎 | #SurreyCricket pic.twitter.com/wLx0UJSeyk
From there, Atkinson set about ensuring Surrey had a target on the board to defend, scoring his maiden List A half-century before he was bowled by Shahzad for 60 off 48 balls. Surrey ended their innings, which was cut short by one over due to a brief rain delay.
While Atkinson usually bats in the lower order, he has shown his batting pedigree on the biggest stage. Last year, during his maiden summer of Test cricket, he scored a century at Lord's against Sri Lanka, batting at No.8.
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