India vs England: Indian wickets among the hardest for wicketkeepers, feels Ben Foakes

Ben Foakes believes Indian wickets are up there with the hardest for wicketkeepers to tackle as they require frequent improvisation and toughness to deal with things occasionally going wrong. Foakes, who made a Test comeback after 11 months in Hyderabad, effected the stumpings of Ravichandran Ashwin and Mohammed Siraj in India’s second innings that sealed England’s epic 28-run win in the opening Test of the five-match series in Hyderabad. With that bat he produced 34 runs in a crucial 112-run partnership with Ollie Pope (196) that gave England the decisive lead. “In conditions like this, it’s about trying to think on your feet and learn because it’s not natural conditions (for me),” the 30-year-old was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo. “I’ve obviously kept away a lot and kept to spinners, but I find that Indian pitches, with the variable bounce, are up there with the hardest. “The more extreme the conditions you know things are occasionally going to wrong so you just have to mentally strong enough to put it out of your mind,” he added. The 30-year-old is prepared for extreme conditions in rest of the series as well. “There is a good chance the next one is going to be a tough one. “You’re in the game, so it’s nice as a keeper. It’s obviously a very hard place to keep, and you’re aware of that. You’re going to have some tough moments or a tough day. But you’d rather be in the game than watching the ball do nothing in front of you,” he added. On their 2021 tour, England had won the opening Test only to lose three in a row on rank-turners Read | Stats show rank turners could be a disaster for India “All three were probably the worst pitches I’ve batted on. Going into that, I was thinking, ‘These are horrific wickets – I just need to find a way to stay in’,” Foakes recalled. Emphasising a shift in the team’s mindset, he said: “I think now the group is more, if that’s the situation, you’ve got to be positive; got to put it (pressure) back on the bowler and put them under pressure. “Before, there was more of a fear of getting out and that put us in our shells. Whereas now it’s not worrying that you are getting out and accepting that you probably are on those sort of surfaces. But how can you actually go and dominate at times as well?” Keeping the tough Indian conditions in mind, Foakes was chosen as the specialist wicketkeeper ahead of Jonny Bairstow. “The thing I’ve tried to develop when I go in is if we lose a couple of wickets, to expand early,” he said about his partnership with Pope. “But I think generally, throughout my career, when there’s been those kind of situations where you have to grind in is when I’ve been most successful. That’s where I need to keep improving, so it fits quite nicely into my game.”