Opportunities come to those who wait, and now is Ben Foakes' turn

NICK FRIEND: Foakes has spent plenty of time as an unused squad member since the Surrey wicketkeeper last represented England in Test cricket

On Saturday, Ben Foakes will resume his Test career, 742 days after his last outing in England whites ended in a 10-wicket defeat against West Indies in Antigua.

Joe Root’s side have played 19 times since in red-ball cricket, with Foakes on the scene for many of those, yet only in a watching brief.

But good things come to those who wait and, with Jos Buttler returning home for a period of rest and recuperation away from the claustrophobia of bio-secure bubbling, the Surrey wicketkeeper has finally been handed the chance to carry on from where his fledgling existence as an international cricketer appeared to have stalled.

There were solitary ODI and T20I appearances within two days of one another in May 2019, while most of England’s World Cup assets were wrapped in cotton wool, but otherwise this marks a well-earned return for a man viewed by many as the most accomplished gloveman in the land.

“It’s been a while since my last one,” he said on Thursday. “I’ve been around the group a bit, so I’ve felt involved. But I’ve not played for a while, so there’s a bit of excitement, a bit of nerves, a bit of everything going on at the moment.”

He is walking back into a winning team, high on confidence and full of self-belief after a tremendous team performance in toppling India in Chennai. Foakes, too, has good memories of Test cricket in Asia; he was named man of the series in Sri Lanka at the end of England’s landmark whitewash over their hosts. As well as a century on debut, his glovework to spinners Moeen Ali, Jack Leach and Adil Rashid was impeccable. Only, two losses later in the Caribbean, he was dropped.

Given his near-perfect start, had he anticipated more faith from those who pick the team? “Yeah, after my debut – with it going quite well – I did think I’d get a bit longer,” he admitted. “But international cricket is quite cutthroat and, after a couple of bad games, I was dropped. That’s, I guess, the way it is.”

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There is no bitterness, however. Jos Buttler’s recent displays – both with bat and gloves – have more than vindicated the selectors’ direction of travel, while this opening has been on the cards for a while: Ed Smith made it known before Christmas that Buttler would miss part of this series, with Foakes the likely beneficiary. And after all, having grown up as James Foster's understudy at Essex, he is used to waiting his turn.

“Jos has done such an amazing job over the last couple of years,” added Foakes. “It’s one of those situations where it’s very understandable. It’s all been about preparing for if and when there was an opportunity which has obviously arisen.

“It is quite clear that [Buttler] is No.1, so my mindset has shifted a little bit. So, every game and opportunity I get, I want to take it and kind of prove what I can do rather than looking too far ahead at what I can try and cement down. It taking every day as it comes and trying to enjoy it.”

Speaking to The Cricketer last summer as part of a long read on life in the Wicketkeepers’ Union, he reflected on the challenges he faced in overcoming his short-lived stint as the man in possession.

“It’s obviously very difficult,” he explained. “For me, I’d done six years on the Lions working all summer and all winter trying to get to the eventual goal of playing for England. And then, I guess once you get there, you don’t know what’s going to happen.

“For me, for it to go really well and get the man of the series in the first series, I guess you do expect more of a run. Two games later, for it to be gone – in terms of the mental side of it – that’s something that’s quite tricky to deal with.”

^{Ben Foakes made a hundred on his Test debut in 2018}

Subsequently, he endured a difficult domestic campaign in 2019, averaging just 24.58 with the bat and he spoke candidly at the end of that summer – during which he had often captained Surrey with Rory Burns absent on Ashes duty, kept wicket and batted at No.5 – about his mental fatigue and the need to rest his mind.

And so, when he was selected by England to tour Sri Lanka a year ago – before the trip was curtailed by the coronavirus outbreak – Foakes was mildly surprised to be among the travelling party, even though he had starred on the previous visit.

“Statistically, you don’t pick someone for an England tour on the back of what I did last year,” he said, speaking to The Cricketer two months into the first national lockdown.

“But at the same time, I knew it wasn’t that I’d had a bad year because I wasn’t playing well. I knew that if I came back after a break, I felt like I could do a hell of a lot better.”

And he has done – albeit in a limited sample size, having spent most of last summer as a reserve in England’s bio-secure bubble. When he was finally released to play for Surrey in August, he struck a hundred in his first knock and followed up with a second innings half century.

A single poor year aside, Foakes’ first-class batting record has remained excellent, averaging 51.41, 44, 49.47, 36.7 and 75.66 in each county season since 2015, with his only blemish coming – as aforementioned – in 2019.

As part of last summer’s piece about life as a wicketkeeper-batsman, he explained how talk around his flawless glovework often meant that he felt his batting ability went overlooked by onlookers.

“I guess on last year, you’d say I’m a keeper,” he said in May 2020. “But the years before, I’ve had the numbers of a batsman. I think if you can average mid-40s for a few years, I feel it is unfair to be put as a keeper that bats a little bit.

“When everyone kept on saying: ‘Good keeper, can’t do it with the bat’, that was one thing that annoyed me just purely because statistically there’s no evidence of that. That was one thing that frustrated me.”

^{Foakes was in the runs on his return to Surrey at the back end of last season}

Perception, he added, lies at the centre of much of this discussion. “Some guys who are seen as really good batters that can keep as well, even if they develop their keeping immensely and are actually really good keepers, the second you drop one, you’re seen as: ‘Ah, he’s not a great keeper, but he can bat though.’”

Buttler and Jonny Bairstow have certainly fallen victim to that particular misconception.

Foakes continued: “It’s almost like, if a good keeper drops one, it’s like: ‘You rarely see that,’ whereas if a guy that’s seen as a batter that keeps drops one, he may drop less – you never know, but it’s seen as: ‘Ah, he’s dropped another one.’ It’s such a fine thing of how you’re perceived.”

On what is to come over the next month, he is hoping for a seamless return. He has kept wicket previously to Leach in Sri Lanka and on Lions tours, while he encountered Dom Bess during a Lions camp in the Caribbean in 2018.

“I’m trying to do everything I can to put myself in a good position to do well,” he said on Thursday. “Hopefully, I’ll be able to contribute. I haven’t played as much as I’d like over the last couple of years, so I’m just trying to get back in and do a good job for the team.

“It’s an incredible series to be a part of and the fans coming back in is an added bonus, so I’m just really excited.

“I think every competitor wants to play. So, when you go a long period without, it is a challenge. But luckily I get an opportunity now.”