The opener delayed his arrival to England’s training session on Tuesday morning, having been the first in and out of the nets on Monday to be with his fiancée, Paige. That this is a home Test for Duckett aids the logistics of preparing for both a newborn and the West Indies attack, ahead of Thursday’s start in Nottingham.
“There’s a plan in place for Ben and his partner,” Ben Stokes said during his captain’s press conference on Wednesday. “We’ll just have to make a decision if it was to happen before the game started.
“If anything happens throughout the Test match, Ben will just go and come back into the team. He’s obviously desperate to play at his home ground but the message from me and Baz is family always comes first. Whatever decision you end up making, you’ll get the support of me and Baz.”
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That these were Atkinson’s second and third five-wicket hauls of his career speaks to a relative lack of first-class experience. Not only was Lord’s just his 20th red-ball appearance, but across 38 innings in the field, he has opened the bowling just seven times.
The last occasion was against a Sri Lanka Development XI in May 2022, though Atkinson has gone on to accrue plenty of new-ball experience in limited-overs cricket. He has fulfilled the role five times for England in three ODIs and two T20Is.
Stokes has full faith Atkinson is up for the job and believes opening with the 26-year-old will have a positive knock-on effect on the rest of the bowling attack. Especially because the Dukes has been behaving a little differently in English conditions over the last few years.
“He just had all the attributes of a very, very good bowler. A lot of it is to do with the Dukes ball, how it has behaved,” Stokes said.
“There has not actually been that much movement in the air with the new ball. It’s generally been off the surface, hitting the seam, and Gus is a very good exponent of that.
“At 10-12 overs you get a buff on one side and that is when it really starts to swing, so that is where me and Woody come in. Woody bowling at 94mph with the ball swinging is going to be tough for anyone.”
Vithushan Ehantharajah is an associate editor at ESPNcricinfo
Source: ESPN Crickinfo