I'm not a 'Bazball' player, but I still fit in with England, insists Foakes

THE ice to England’s fire, Ben Foakes is revelling in the role of the side’s calm head after fearing there would not be space for him in the era of ‘Bazball’.

- Cameron Ponsonby

Foakes’s England career has been stop-start. Nineteen Tests, spread over four-and-a-half years, have been split into three distinct periods.

A five-Test run in 2018 was followed by a two-year absence, before his second opportunity in 2021 was brought to a cruel end as he suffered a freak injury after slipping in the Surrey dressing room. It would be another year before he played for England again.

Even now, with Foakes well into chapter three of his England career, a stint that has been his most successful in the side, he missed one Test in Pakistan due to illness and a second due to a smog- related tactical decision; an unusual omission that was even harder for Foakes to accept as he was forced to lend his wicketkeeping gloves to his great friend and understudy Ollie Pope, who had not taken his own on tour.