In twenty-five Tests during his England career, Foakes was exclusively the no. Batted at 7 or 8 and often struggled to fit into the batting alongside tailenders. During the recent 4-1 series loss in India he scored 205 runs in 10 innings, with a top score of 47, 30 below his career average.
“I felt I was good; my keeping was good,” Fox said, reflecting on his performances in India. “To start with, I didn’t feel great with the bat and then, yeah, I was disappointed in a couple of innings where I didn’t kick. Again, the role of batting down, batting off the tail – the more I do it, the more I look at it: ‘How many times can I impact (the game)?’
“Because in some series you don’t get a chance to go big, for example, it’s very crucial when you get a chance to try and really kick, so I was disappointed in the fourth Test (in Ranchi). I’m still evolving and learning from the tail (how to bat) and how to handle situations like that. Could kick and didn’t.
“Naturally, tall batting suits me,” Folks said. “Obviously, when you play for England, that doesn’t always happen and that’s understandable. But it naturally suits my game better. During my time playing for Surrey, there aren’t many instances where you come in, face five or 10 balls and you’re batting with the lower order when you should be playing a different game.”
Yet Folks does not intend to drop down the order in the Championship in order to gain more experience in that role. Instead, he believes his hopes of retaining England ahead of their next Test against the West Indies on July 10 will be best served by scoring as many runs as possible from the middle order.
“It’s tricky,” he said. “I’ve been in and out of England, but it’s always about trying to score runs to get back into the England team. Here (at The Oval) I’ve found a good position at No. 5. I’ve been quite successful over the years, and for me, it’s always about working on my game, so if that situation arises I think I can do a decent job.
“There was definitely a period where all my focus and all my training was just batting and batting and batting and trying to grind out big scores. For me, it was more about trying to score big runs for Surrey but then working on it. (Batting with the tail) was more like an add-on than just the odd session. … Maybe to have a gameplan where I’m going to take someone down instead of batting against them.”
Foakes is used to being in and out of the England squad and will go into the summer of 2024 with a lack of clarity over his status in the Test set-up. “I wasn’t told anything,” he said. “The years I’ve gotten into my career and the more I’ve been in and out, the more I’ve come to accept that it’s true.
“I try not to worry about it, try not to stress too much about getting the long term or external stuff. India, first and foremost, I took it as just trying to really enjoy it. The more times you give up, the more you understand that you don’t know how long you have left… When you’re out there, instead of stressing too much about the game or thinking, ‘This is my last chance,’ just enjoy what you’re playing and you don’t know how long it will be basically.”
England will play twelve Tests in the second half of 2024, so Foakes is considering missing an early-season Championship game to manage his workload. “It depends on what they’re looking at. (It depends on) whether I’m likely to play or not, and then (I’ll) reevaluate.”
Matt Roller is an Associate Editor at ESPNcricinfo. @mroller98