The 26-year-old joins Chris Woakes and the retiring James Anderson as the specialist seamers.
Atkinson’s Surrey team-mate Jamie Smith, 23, will also make his Test bow behind the stumps, a move confirmed when he was named in the squad ahead of Jonny Bairstow and Ben Foakes.
Atkinson, who has played nine one-day internationals and three T20s, was part of the England squad for the Test tour of India earlier this year, but did not feature.
Smith usually plays for Surrey as a specialist batter with Foakes taking the gloves, although he was England’s keeper for the two one-day internationals he played against Ireland last year.Off-spinner Shoaib Bashir, picked in the England squad ahead of his Somerset team-mate Jack Leach, plays his first home Test after winning three caps on the tour of India.
England XI: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, James Anderson.
Overall, England have a fresh look for the first Test in the three-match series against the Windies.There are four changes from the side heavily beaten in the final Test of the 4-1 series defeat in India and four from the last home Test against Australia at The Oval last July.
Leach, Foakes and Bairstow have been left out, while 41-year-old Anderson has been told this will be the last international match of a record-breaking career that has seen him become England’s all-time leading Test wicket-taker.
Atkinson, capable of bowling at high pace, has taken 59 wickets in 19 first-class matches. He gets the nod ahead of Matthew Potts and the uncapped Dillon Pennington, who are the other seamers in the squad.
Smith has long been touted as a future England prospect. An attractive stroke-maker, he averages more than 40 in first-class cricket and in excess of 56 in the County Championship this season.
