England's Gus Atkinson Focuses on Sticking to His Game Plan in 1st Test Against Pakistan

Multan [Pakistan]: England pacer Gus Atkinson, ahead of the first Test match against Pakistan, stated on Sunday that he is focused on maintaining his usual approach and not making any drastic changes for the upcoming long-format game.

The first Test will begin on October 7 in Multan, followed by the second Test on October 15, also in Multan. The final Test will be held in Rawalpindi from October 24 to 28.

Atkinson made his Test debut in 2024 against West Indies. The 26-year-old played six long-format matches and 12 innings, where he picked up 34 wickets at an economy rate of 4.13.

Speaking in a video shared on the official social media handle of the Pakistan Cricket Board , Atkinson said that the weather in Pakistan's Multan is a lot hotter than in England. The Three Lions pacer added that the conditions in Multan are different for which he will talk to someone who has played there.

"It's obviously a lot hotter than England. The weather's quite bad there now, but yeah, it was very hot here. We had a good training session yesterday and got used to the weather. Today, it feels a lot easier to train. I'm just trying not to do anything different. I know the conditions are different, so I'll speak to people who have played here before and try to learn from them. But I'm going to play my own game and do what works for me," Atkinson said.

The pacer further added that the visitors have lost a few players due to injury but they still have a good bowling attack.

"We've lost a few senior players over the years and are missing some players due to injury. But we have a really good bowling attack here. We've got a lot of young bowlers who are ready to go, and Chris Woakes has been around for a long time, so he's very experienced. As I said, we've got a lot of young bowlers ready to go," he added.

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Star batter Stokes has been ruled out of the Multan Test after he failed to recover from his hamstring injury. Earlier in August, Stokes suffered a hamstring injury during The Hundred. This ruled him out of England's triumph against Sri Lanka and it was Ollie Pope who led the side in the veteran's absence.

England's playing eleven against Pakistan in the Multan Test: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope , Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith , Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Jack Leach, Shoaib Bashir.

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