Getting on the Lord’s Honours board is a great feeling for cricketers. And Gus Atkinson felt the same. The 26-year-old Surrey cricketer had already made it to the board twice in his debut Test, claiming a five-wicket haul and ending up with a match haul of 12 against the West Indies in July as well.

“It’s amazing,” Atkinson told ECB after his 115-ball 118 helped England finish with 427 in the second Test against Sri Lanka. “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.”

Gus Atkinson had hit a couple of boundaries to enter the 80s when he was hit on the pad by the bowler and was given out leg-before. He took the review and managed to get the decision reversed, and soon after that, he hit a flurry of boundaries as he reached the century in 103 balls.

“A bit nervous but not that nervous. Last night I was pretty happy that I had scored 70 and obviously I wanted to go on and score more. Whatever happened, I wouldn’t regret anything the way I played. And I thought I went out and played like the way I played yesterday. If it didn’t work for me, it didn’t. But thankfully it went pretty well,” he added.

“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,” Gus Atkinson concluded.