England bowler Gus Atkinson reflects on day one of the final Test vs India at the Oval.

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Watch England bowler Gus Atkinson reflects on day one of the final Test vs India at the Oval. - NicheSportMedia on Dailymotion

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00:00In between.

00:23Camera's all good here.

00:24We've got Gus Atkinson, go straight to Rory.

00:28Gus, have you enjoyed your return to Test cricket?

00:31It's been a little while.

00:32Yeah, it's been good.

00:33Obviously disappointing to miss the first four games of the series,

00:36but to come back for this last game, an important game at my home ground,

00:40it's nice.

00:41And happy with the wee ball and to pick up a couple and a run out

00:45because you've already had, I think, that little run out for Spencer

00:47and then the second 11 game, you don't have too much to put in the legs.

00:51Yeah, no, I am happy.

00:53I felt like I bowled well and challenged the batters at times,

00:57but being hypercritical maybe could have bowled at the stumps a bit more.

01:03I mean, it's a hard ground because it is bouncy to challenge the stumps a lot,

01:07but no, I'm happy with how I bowled.

01:09And, you know, bowling's the main job,

01:11but getting to run out Shubham and Gill has got to be pretty good news for you.

01:14How did you see that one?

01:15Yeah, no, I was happy with that in that little period where we came on.

01:18I don't know how long we were out there for, but, yeah, I was happy with that.

01:22And, yeah, I felt a bit of pressure to hit because I knew he would have been out,

01:28but, yeah, thankfully I hit.

01:30And I just wondered if you were able to tell us anything about Chris Walks.

01:33Obviously it was quite clear that he was in quite a lot of discomfort.

01:37What's the sort of team view and a real disappointment for a guy who's put a lot in this summer?

01:42Yeah, I mean, I don't know too much about it, but it doesn't look great.

01:46It's a big shame, obviously.

01:48Last game of the series and when anyone gets injured, it's a shame.

01:52So, no, I'm hoping it's not too bad and whatever it is,

01:57he'll get the full support from everyone.

01:59And you've had, obviously, your fitness issues.

02:01If it means that one of the ballers is out,

02:04there'll be extra work to pick up over these four days,

02:07ready to put in and see how far you can push that?

02:10Yeah, definitely.

02:11I mean, I feel fresh, I feel good.

02:13I know I've only got this one game to play, so I can sort of push the limits a bit.

02:18Will?

02:19Gas, given you a sorry boy,

02:22what's sort of a good score on this pitch when you've put your position in?

02:26It's hard to say.

02:28I mean, you look at the pitch, you look at the overheads and you think,

02:32oh, this should be, you know, quite easy for the bowlers or whatever.

02:35But I think it's a ground where if you don't bowl well,

02:38you can go for runs quite easily.

02:40So, I think it'll be interesting tomorrow,

02:43what happens if we can pick up some early wickets.

02:45I think we'll get an opportunity to hopefully keep them down to 2.30, 2.40 would be good.

02:55But, yeah, I mean, as I said, you can score good runs on these wickets.

03:01And just in terms of your injury,

03:03it seemed like one which didn't seem that serious when it first happened

03:06and then kind of suddenly you missed four test matches.

03:09Did you feel like it was kind of niggling away

03:11and suddenly you sort of almost lost a whole test summer?

03:14Yeah, sort of. I mean, I'd never really done a, had a muscle injury like that before.

03:21So, I didn't really, you know, I didn't feel great in that Zimbabwe game towards the end.

03:26And, you know, I was hoping to be ready for that third test when I got added to the squad.

03:32So, it's been frustrating, but it's important to make sure that, you know, you feel right and you're ready.

03:39So, yeah, it was disappointing, but I feel good now.

03:44Take one more from Stefan and then we're done.

03:47How difficult or not was it for Josh Tong out there?

03:50Because it seemed times when the radar wasn't quite right

03:52and then he was producing a few Jaffas.

03:54Yeah, I mean, it can be at times a tough ground to bowl on

04:01because of the way that the ball moves sometimes off the pitch

04:06and, you know, it can swing a lot after it's pitched.

04:11And, yeah, the footholds weren't easy at times.

04:13It was quite slippy out there and that can obviously affect the radar when bowling.

04:18But he got some very important wickets for us, which was great.

04:22Was he good as a bowler when sometimes it isn't going quite right?

04:25Do you want people to get around you

04:27or do you just want to be left alone to work it out for yourself?

04:30A bit of both. I mean, some reassurance is always nice.

04:33But sometimes as a bowler you can get a bit frustrated

04:36and you just need to handle that on your own.

04:39But, you know, he didn't look like it affected him too well

04:43and too badly, sorry.

04:45And he got some very important wickets for us.

04:48Yeah.

04:49Cool. I think we're done. Thank you.

04:50Perfect.

04:51We'll have an update tomorrow on the footholds.

04:53Yeah.

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