Bipin Dani
England wicket-keeper Ben Foakes could not have asked for a memorable performance on his birthday.
Foakes turned 28 on Monday and though his team is not in a winning position against India in the ongoing Test in Chennai, he affected the two stumpings and also had a hand in running out one Indian batsman.
“Ben Foakes is the first keeper to take 2 stumpings on his birthday in a Test match”, renowned BBC cricket statistician Andrew Samson confirmed. Opener Rohit Sharma was marginally out of his crease when Foakes stumped him out and the sixer-man Rishabh Pant was much out of his crease when bails were off by the keeper.
“For him his time with us was he had to adopt a more self driven approach to his game eg doing his own cooking and washing, catching a bus to training around his game as opposed to having the comfortable aspects of professional cricket being normal for him”, Shaun Seigert, the High Performance Program Director at the Root Academy, says.
“This is a test of being organised, and taking ownership over your life and ultimately your game”. “This is a test of your ability to deliver your best when a lot of comfort is taken away which happens in professional cricket these days”, he added further.
Three people he’d invite to a dinner party are Barack Obama, Adriana Lima and Sachin Tendulkar, according to his fun fact file on the ECB website.
Foakes, as he is called, considers Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara as his idol.
