sport news LAWRENCE BOOTH: Ben Foakes' impressive blitz shows that he fits the England ... trends now
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If England’s new set-up still harboured any doubts about Ben Foakes’s role in the revolution, they ought to have been dispelled by the first 20 minutes of the fourth morning of this gripping second Test.
When Foakes walked out to bat with 24 to his name, he might easily have sought out the slipstream of his partner, Joe Root.
Instead, he timed Tim Southee’s second ball through extra cover, then — assisted by a misfield — did the same to the third.
Ben Foakes' performance showed that he deserves to be part of England's revolution
Three through midwicket helped make it 12 off the opening over, and England had immediately tapped into the madness of Sunday, when they made 383 runs — their most in a day’s play for more than a decade.
Soon after, Foakes cut Southee for four more to complete his first Test fifty since his maiden series, in November 2018 in Sri Lanka.
Back then, the thought that this Test might be only his 13th would have raised eyebrows. But circumstance got in the way: England hadn’t given up on Jonny Bairstow or Jos Buttler, and then came Covid and a freak dressing-room injury, when he tore a hamstring slipping in his socks.
That ruled him out of last summer’s series against New Zealand, amid concerns that his chance had come and gone — especially when he had a quiet time on both sides of the stumps earlier this year in the
