England suffered a big setback on Monday (December 29) when it was confirmed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) that star fast bowler Gus Atkinson will miss the fifth Test of the ongoing Ashes
series against Australia. The fifth and final Test of the 2025-26 Ashes will be played from January 4 to 8 at Sydney Cricket Ground. England’s cricket team took to X on Monday to post a tweet via which they confirmed the development.
According to the ECB update, 27-year-old Surrey pacer Atkinson has suffered a left hamstring injury, which is why he won’t feature in the red-ball match at the iconic SCG.
“England Men’s seamer Gus Atkinson has been ruled out for the remainder of the Ashes tour after scans confirmed he has sustained a left hamstring injury. The Surrey right-armer left the field after bowling his fifth over of Australia’s second innings during England’s victory at the MCG in the fourth Test. England will not call up a replacement for the fifth Test, which gets under way in Sydney on 4 January,” ECB tweeted.
Wishing you a speedy recovery, Gus 🙏
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) December 29, 2025
Atkinson, who made his Test debut for England in July 2024 against the West Indies at Lord’s, played the first, second and fourth Tests of the ongoing series in Australia. He remained wicketless in both the innings of the series opener played at Optus Stadium in Perth from November 21 to 22 but added 37 runs to England’s total with the bat in their second innings.
In the Day-Night Test played with the pink ball at The Gabba in Brisbane from December 4 to 7, Atkinson picked up his first Ashes wicket in the form of Alex Carey, who made 63 runs from 69 balls in the first innings and then got rid of two Australian batters in the second innings.
Atkinson was dropped from England’s playing XI for the third Test in Adelaide, but after Jofra Archer suffered an injury ahead of the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, Atkinson got a chance to play again for the Poms, and in front of more than 90,000 runs at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, he dismissed two batters in the first innings and one in the second.
