Ben Foakes has come to accept the impermanent nature of his England Test spot and tries not to worry much about getting long stints anymore.
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Since he made his Test debut in 2018, Foakes has been in and out of the England Test side as the wicketkeeper’s spot has revolved between Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler, and Foakes.
Foakes was most recently part of the England side that lost 1-4 in India. He played all five Tests and managed 205 runs. While his returns with the bat were disappointing, he garnered lot of praise for his wicketkeeping. However, he has not been guaranteed a spot for the upcoming home summer this year, where England face Sri Lanka and West Indies.
“I haven’t been told anything,” Foakes told The Independent. “Obviously the more years I’ve got into my career, the more I’ve been in and out, I’ve almost come to an acceptance that it has been the case and not try to worry about it or stress too much about getting a long run or external stuff.”
Focused on staying in the present, Foakes is enjoying the fact that he was getting to play instead of worrying about the future during the India series: “India, first and foremost, I took as just trying to really enjoy it. I think the more times you get dropped, the more times you realise you don’t know how long you’ve got left or whatever it might be.
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“So while you’re out there, rather than stress too much about the game or this might be my last chance, just enjoy the fact you are playing and you don’t know how long for essentially.”
Batting with the tail has been a bit of a flesh in the thorn of Foakes’ Test career, given his batting position of No.7. He was disappointed at not being able to get a big score in the Ranchi Test, something he doesn’t get many opportunities for batting at that position.
“Again, that role of batting lower down, batting with the tail, the more I do it, the more I look at it as how many times can I impact? Because some series you might not get an opportunity to go big, big for example, so it is very crucial when you do get a chance to try and really kick on, which I was disappointed in the fourth Test where I could have kicked on and didn’t. [I’m] still evolving and trying to learn with the tail and how to manage those sort of situations,” Foakes said.
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Surrey are the defending champions in the County Championship and will start their 2024 season against Lancashire next week. Foakes said that with the number of England Test series coming up, he may have a tight schedule if he is selected for most England games, in which case he might have to look to accommodate some rest in between: “Every summer in the past, I’ve not known whether I will play so I’ve played every [Surrey] game.
“I did look at the Test schedule and there would be the chance to play 28 Tests and Champo [County Championship games] if I did play from the start of India until the end of New Zealand, obviously depending on selection.
“If that was the case and I did play, that is quite a lot of cricket so there would be potential to have a rest, but again it depends on what they’re looking at. Whether I am likely to play or not and then reassess.”
