England international taken off the field after his national team-mate hit him twice with the ball

England fast bowler Gus Atkinson was hit in successive overs by Josh Tongue in a county cricket match.

Updated on: May 11, 2026, 15:54:04 IST

Written by Prateek Srivastava

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Early next month, England line up against New Zealand in the first Test at Lord's and one of their regulars was hit twice during a county cricket game between Surrey and Nottinghamshire.

Not good news ahead of the three-Test series against New Zealand. (REUTERS)

The man who injured him is also a cinch to play that Test. Yes, England fast bowler Gus Atkinson was hit on the head twice by fellow England pacer Josh Tongue. The second time the blow was particularly nasty. Atkinson was taken out of the match, fearing a concussion and was replaced by Reece Topley, who has represented England in quite a few white-ball matches.

Also Read: Ben Stokes strikes with the new ball upon return to competitive cricket after four months

Playing for Surrey, Atkinson decided to continue his innings on both occasions, but then it was decided he should be taken off. He was on 27 when he left the field.

Thank goodness, nothing terrible has happened to the England fast bowler. Surrey coach Gareth Batty provided a gladdening update on Atkinson.

"Gus passed the tests on the field, otherwise he would not have been able to stay out there," said Batty.

"He felt like he was OK, but duty of care comes into it. I don't know the ins and outs of what exactly happened, but it clearly came to a point where he had to come off. He's OK in himself," he added.

England facing big issues in fast bowling!

England fans would breathe a big sigh of relief after Batty's update. Their captain Ben Stokes recently played his first competitive game in months. Brydon Carse is injured. Jofra Archer is busy with the IPL that finishes on May 31, so it's unlikely he will be ready in time to play the first Test starting June 4 at Lord's.

Mark Wood is recovering from injury. Atkinson and Tongue are the only ones without any question marks. Imagine if something nasty had come of those two blows.

Atkinson was part of the Ashes campaign that England lost 4-1 earlier this year. He played in three Tests but didn’t make any impression with the ball. He bowled just 73 overs in all and could only take six wickets at an average of 47.33 and a strike rate of 73. Atkinson picked up a hamstring injury during the fourth Test and went on to miss the final one in Sydney. He had not played in the third Test either.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Prateek Srivastava
Prateek Srivastava is a senior sports journalist having been in the profession for two decades now. He started his print career with the India Today Group and later also worked for the Asian Age. In 2009, sensing the wind of change, he switched to the digital media and joined Mobile ESPN. There, he covered the 2011 Cricket World Cup and 2010 Hockey World Cup as a venue reporter. He did plenty of voice-over work too, over there. After leaving Mobile ESPN, Prateek went on to work for Cricketnext, Gocricket and Cricbuzz. At Gocricket (Times Internet Limited), he covered the 2014 T20 World from Bangladesh. There he also received a team leadership award, given at the end of the month. Prateek has also covered the 2016 T20 World Cup in India, this time working for Sportz Interactive. He also worked for Chinese giants Alibaba over two years and led their ""Short News"" content team at UC Browser. While cricket is Prateek’s expertise, he has also done a lot of golf. In fact, he has covered India’s first two European Tour events back in the late noughties. He has also done extensive writing on football having been associated with the Indian Super League for three seasons. Finally, Prateek is a literature aficionado and swears by Philip Roth and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and when he doesn’t joke, he is usually quiet and at work.Read More

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