Tinselled bowling duos hand England fresh resolution for new Ashes year
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Atkinson and Carse have followed in Anderson’s and Broad’s giant footsteps, while Filer and Bell are a pairing to fulfil Christmas wishes. Fast bowlers are the Formula One engines of a cricket team: purringly powerful when they want to be, painfully vulnerable when bits fall off. When a partnership works, and sticks – Lillee and Thompson, Ambrose and Walsh, Wasim and Waqar – they carry the team on their shoulders. When that partnership fades, teams often falter, losing their identity.
![[Tanya Aldred]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2021/06/22/Tanya_Aldred.png?width=75&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
It is nearly 17 years ago that Michael Vaughan and Peter Moores informed Matthew Hoggard and Steve Harmison that they were to be dropped for the second Test against New Zealand at Wellington, replaced by James Anderson and Stuart Broad. Harmison played only six more Tests and Hoggard never played for England again, while Anderson and Broad famously went on to be the most successful bowling pair in Test history.
![[Gus Atkinson (left) and Brydon Carse (right) celebrate with Ben Stokes.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/325670657b567dd72bb7775dd6e8c56fd665911f/0_248_5000_3000/master/5000.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
But as they too slipped away (or in Anderson’s case, had to be ushered towards the exit), it felt that England too were going to suffer some sort of existential crisis. But that has not been the case. Because into the giant footsteps of Anderson and Broad have stepped Gus Atkinson and Brydon Carse.
It has been a quiet revolution. Atkinson, with his boots-together pigeon-stepped approach, does not instantly look a huge threat, but his wobble seam and swinging deliveries at 90mph have been a sensation. His first year in Test cricket has brought him 52 wickets in 11 Tests at an average of 22.15, including a 10-wicket debut and three five wicket-hauls. Throw in a Test hundred against Sri Lanka, and a hat-trick at Wellington and even the laid-back Atkinson must be allowing himself a smile into his Christmas stocking.
