"There’s no sour grapes, it’s just a weird head space" - Ben Foakes on not being considered for the 2023 Ashes
England wicketkeeper-batter Ben Foakes had to watch the 2023 Ashes from the sidelines after losing his spot to the returning Jonny Bairstow. With England boasting a packed lower-middle order comprising the likes of Harry Brook, Ben Stokes, and Bairstow, Foakes was not selected for any of the Ashes Tests.
A strong case for Foakes was made by fans and pundits alike after Bairstow's shoddy displays behind the stumps across the first two Tests. However, the team management was firm with its decision to give Bairstow a long rope.
Foakes, who was once adjudged as the 'best keeper in the world' by skipper Ben Stokes, has been focusing on the domestic season with Surrey. He recently scored a hundred in Surrey's five-wicket loss to Leicestershire in the One-Day Cup and has been among the runs in the County Championship as well.
Foakes insisted that the transition from him to Bairstow was handled well by the management after he received calls from Brendon McCullum as well as Rob Key ahead of the Ashes.
“It’s the right way to do it. Everyone has bad games but if you chop and change, which happened under previous regimes, no one is ever playing their best cricket. The first time I got dropped, I had been the man of the series, the best I’ve ever played, then got dropped two games later, but those two games went badly. Especially at that time, if you had a couple of bad games you felt something could happen," he said in an interview with the Telegraph.
He further stated that there are no hard feelings regarding his exclusion from the Ashes team. Felling "gutted" instead of "furious", he added:
“The guys who got picked have done well too. There’s no sour grapes, it’s just a weird head space. I’ve had quite a topsy-turvy career, then you are where you want to be, performing, dropped.
"It is selection, people had a decision to make. Regardless of the way it went, I can understand the decision they reached. I am not furious. I am gutted. It’s happened before, and it’s how you deal with it. In the past it’s thrown me, and maybe this time it’s thrown me the most, because I was doing well."
Foakes was the preferred wicketkeeping candidate at the beginning of the Bazball era. While he was a bit inconsistent with the bat, his prowess with the gloves could not be denied.
"Watching was difficult" - Ben Foakes on 2023 Ashes
The wicketkeeper admits that watching the five-match series was a difficult affair following his exclusion. Jonny Bairstow, despite his errors with the gloves, had an impactful series. His keeping improved as the series progressed and he finished with 322 runs in nine innings, which included three fifties.
Revealing that he truly felt like a member of the squad while playing under Ben Stokes, Ben Foakes stated:
“Watching was difficult, but I’ve spent the majority of my career watching, from the outside looking in. The last year was the first time I’d felt like an England player, rather than a county player occasionally coming in, and feeling like you playing your last game at any time. That was the first time that I felt part of a team, from a backing point of view."
Foakes stated that being England's No.1 wicketkeeper is a tough job, largely due to the uncertainty that surrounds it.
"There’s always debates about keepers in England because there’s only one spot and a difficult decision,” he says. “It always splits opinions. When someone does well it settles, but then can rear its head. If you are in the position you know it will pop up," he added.
Foakes, who scored a brilliant hundred on his Test debut in Sri Lanka, is known for his ability to play spin. He could be in consideration for England's next Test assignment in early 2024 against India away from home.