Michael Vaughan touts Ben Foakes as England's best keeper

Not long ago, England cricket was caught up in a debate on who would succeed their legendary opening batsman Alastair Cook after he announced his retirement during the home series in England. Cook’s decision to play the final game of the series was also criticised by many who thought it was time for England to find a replacement opener for the next series against Sri Lanka.

To everybody’s surprise, England found a new player making his mark on the international arena in the series against the Lankans and it was Ben Foakes, the side’s wicketkeeper. The 25-year-old Surrey keeper-batsman has been picked as the third gloveman in as many matches by England and he hasn’t disappointed.

Dubbed as the world’s best wicketkeeper a year ago by former England keeper Alec Stewart, Foakes has had a memorable international debut as he has scored a ton to become the 20th Englishman to do so. He hit 107 at No.7 on Day 1 to help England recover from 6 for 164 and was the last man to get out on Day 2 when England were on 342.

Foakes impressed with the gloves after a debut century

Foakes then had an impressive show with the gloves, effecting three dismissals – of those of opener Dimuth Karunaratne (4), captain Dinesh Chandimal (19) and Akila Dhananjaya (0). Two of these dismissals were catches off the bowling of pacer James Anderson and spinner Moeen Ali, respectively, while that of Chandimal was stumping of off-spinner Adil Rashid. The hosts folded up for just 203 runs in their first innings, conceding a meaty lead of 139 runs.

Former England captain Michael Vaughan was all praise for Foakes for his show on the ground and said in a tweet that though he is no expert in wicketkeeping, he could already see in Foakes England’s best wicketkeeper, thanks to his natural skills with the gloves.

Foakes, who came in last week as a cover for Jonny Bairstow, who injured his ankle in a football game, has taken 174 catches and effected 15 stumpings in 90 first-class games that he has played in.

Here is Vaughan’s tweet

No Wicket Keeping expert at all … But what I see in Ben Foakes already suggests to me that he is the Best Keeper in England … Absolute natural … !! #SLvENG

— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) November 7, 2018

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