England men’s Test captain Ben Stokes believes no player has made a bigger impact than what Gus Atkinson has made in his first summer of playing Test cricket for the side, adding that he knew the pacer was destined for success in the longer format. Atkinson made his Test debut at Lord’s against West Indies in July and immediately hit an impression by picking a match haul of 12 wickets in James Anderson’s farewell international game. After taking Player of the Series award in England’s 3-0 win over West Indies, Atkinson made it again to the honours boards by taking a five-for and hitting a maiden Test century against Sri Lanka.

“He has been amazing. I earmarked him as someone I thought could be successful at Test cricket on the India tour even though he didn’t play a game. I watched him train for basically two months which is a hard thing to do as a player. He bowls at a high pace, he is a very skillful bowler and he has shown he has got more than just running in and bowling it fast.

“Seeing him bat before, I knew he had potential, and that 100 he got at Lord’s, to say I wasn’t surprised is a bit of an overstatement, but I have always known he has talent with the bat. He has shown the world and himself what he is capable of with bat in his hand. For your first summer in Test cricket, I can’t remember there being a bigger impact.

“Thirty-something wickets and a Test hundred at Lord’s is pretty amazing. He has been awesome for us. It proves that if you see someone with a bit of talent, with the skillset and armoury he has as a player, and tell them to go out and express themselves and be who they want to be, it is amazing what results you can get from that,” said Stokes to Sky Sports.

England are looking to complete a clean sweep in their Test matches held this summer when they face Sri Lanka in the final match of their series starting at The Oval on Friday.

Stokes, who is recuperating from a hamstring injury, believes the side has it in them to complete a winning clean sweep in Test match results.

“It would be great to finish off the summer with another win and say we have won all six games we have had this summer. A summer of Test cricket is hard, six games is a lot. We feel like we have been pretty compact and there hasn’t been too much break between the games.

“Winning six Test matches in one summer is no mean feat, so it would be great to finish off the summer in the last match against Sri Lanka with a win,” concluded.

Gus Atkinson continued his Lord’s love affair by taking five wickets as England thrashed Sri Lanka by 190 runs in the second Test on Sunday to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in a three-match series. Sri Lanka, set what would have been a new Test record fourth-innings winning total of 483, were dismissed for 292 after tea on the fourth day despite fifties from Dinesh Chandimal (58), Dimuth Karunaratne (55) and captain Dhananjaya de Silva (50). Fast bowler Atkinson, who scored his maiden first-class hundred in England’s first-innings 427, led the attack with 5-62. Player-of-the-match Atkinson secured a fifth mention on the dressing room honours boards in just his second Test at Lord’s after taking 12 wickets on England debut against the West Indies in July. (

He also became just the third England cricketer after Tony Greig and Ian Botham to score a century and take five wickets in an innings of the same Test.

Atkinson followed India’s Vinoo Mankad (against England in 1952) and Botham (against Pakistan in 1978) as the only men to have achieved that double at Lord’s.

The 26-year-old Surrey paceman’s latest impressive return helped England seal a seventh successive win over Sri Lanka following their five-wicket success in last week’s first Test at Old Trafford.

“To get on both honours boards is incredible,” Atkinson told Sky Sports. “It will take a while to sink in.”

This game was also a personal triumph for Joe Root.

For the first time in 145 matches at this level, Root made hundreds in both innings — 143 and 103 — to set a new record of 34 Test centuries by an England batsman.

Sri Lanka have little time to regroup before the third Test at The Oval starts on Friday.

De Silva admitted he had erred in opting to field on a good batting pitch after winning the toss.

“Definitely. I got it wrong,” he told the BBC, before adding: “We have got to improve on the first innings whether we bat or bowl first, that’s what I will be telling my boys is that we’ve got to start better.”

Sri Lanka resumed Sunday on 53-2, with the odds stacked against them given the highest winning fourth-innings total in any Test is the West Indies’ 418-7 against Australia at St John’s in 2002/03.

But Root — who on Saturday had taken his 200th Test catch — reprieved Karunaratne when dropping a tough one-handed slip chance from the opener’s edged cut off Atkinson.

Stone strikes

Karunaratne, 36, drove and pulled Atkinson for fours off successive deliveries on his way to a 98-ball fifty including seven boundaries.

The left-hander, however, was out shortly before lunch when injury-plagued fast bowler Olly Stone, in his first Test for three years, produced a rising 87 mph (140 kmh) delivery that Karunaratne could only glove down the legside to wicketkeeper Jamie Smith.

Chandimal counter-attacked early in the afternoon on his way to a dashing 42-ball fifty including 40 runs in boundaries before Atkinson had him caught at short leg off bat and pad.

Kamindu Mendis, boasting a colossal Test batting average of 92 following his third hundred in four Tests at Old Trafford, had made 74 in Sri Lanka’s meagre first-innings 196.

But the 25-year-old left-hander, again batting low down the order, fell for just four on Sunday when caught in the slips off Atkinson.

Mendis’s exit left Sri Lanka, who have now not won any of their nine Tests at Lord’s, slipping towards defeat at 200-7.

De Silva kept England waiting before playing on to Atkinson, who then had Milan Rathnayake caught behind to complete his five-wicket haul.

Chris Woakes had the final say when Lahiru Kumara holed out to Stone at mid-on.