Benjamin Thomas Foakes (born 15 February 1993) is an English professional

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er who plays internationally for the England Test cricket team. In domestic cricket, he represents

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

, having previously played for

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

. Foakes made his

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film) ...

debut in 2018, and played one game for each of the England

One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

and

Twenty20 International Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of Twenty20 cricket, in which each team plays a single innings with a maximum of twenty overs. The matches are played between international teams recognized by the International Cricket Council (ICC). ...

teams in 2019. He plays as a right-handed

wicket-keeper-batsman In cricket, the wicket-keeper is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket, ready to stop deliveries that pass the batsman, and take a catch, stump the batsman out, or run out a batsman when occasion arises. The wicket-ke ...

Early life and education

Foakes was born in

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in northeastern Essex, England. It is the second-largest settlement in the county, with a population of 130,245 at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census. The demonym is ''Colcestrian''. Colchester occupies the ...

and educated at Tendring Technology College. His father was English football Premier League referee,

Peter Foakes Peter Foakes (11 September 1946 – 18 September 2006) was an English football referee in the Football League and Premier League. During his time on the List he was based in Clacton-on-Sea in Essex and was by profession a teacher. He is the ...

Domestic career

During the 2011 English season, Foakes made his debut for

in a first-class match against the touring

Sri Lankans This is a demography of the population of Sri Lanka including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the population, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population. Sri Lanka is an island in th ...

at the

County Ground, Chelmsford The County Ground in Chelmsford, Essex, has been the official home ground of Essex County Cricket Club since 1967. It has been used for first-class cricket since 1925 and List A matches since 1969. The capacity is 6,500, mostly in single-tier se ...

. He was dismissed for 5 runs in Essex's first-innings by

Thisara Perera Narangoda Liyanaarachchige Thisara Chirantha Perera (; born 3 April 1989), popularly known as Thisara Perera, is a former Sri Lankan international cricketer who played all formats for the national team. He also captained the team in limited-over ...

. He took three

catches Catch may refer to: In sports * Catch (game), children's game * Catch (baseball), a maneuver in baseball * Catch (cricket), a mode of dismissal in cricket * Catch or reception (gridiron football) * Catch, part of a rowing stroke * Catch wrestlin ...

from behind the stumps, taking two in the Sri Lankans first-innings and a single catch in their second. In September 2011, he signed a professional contract which ran until 2013. Foakes found he was unable to force a regular place in the Essex first team, and on 14 August 2014, it was announced that he had joined

Surrey County Cricket Club Surrey County Cricket Club (Surrey CCC) is a first-class club in county cricket, one of eighteen in the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Surrey, including areas that now form South Londo ...

. Foakes was part of the

team that won the

2018 County Championship The 2018 County Championship, known as the 2018 Specsavers County Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the 119th cricket County Championship season. As in 2017, Division One has eight teams and Division Two has ten teams, with two teams releg ...

and the

2022 County Championship The 2022 County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) was the 122nd cricket County Championship season in England and Wales. The season began on 7 April and ended on 29 September 2022. Warwic ...

. On 18 September 2023 Foakes signed a new multi-year contract extension at Surrey after becoming a very important member of the team since his arrival by contributing with his excellent wicketkeeping and very reliable batting. Foakes since joining Surrey has amassed over 5,000 First-Class runs averaging just under 43 and has more than 300 dismissals behind the stumps.

International career

Foakes made his debut for England Under-19s in January 2011, playing two Youth Test matches against Sri Lanka Under-19s during England's tour to

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. It was during this tour that he made his Youth

debut. To date, he has had made six appearances in that format, with the most recent appearance coming in July 2011 when he played three Youth One Day Internationals against South Africa Under-19s. In September 2017, he was named in England's

squad for the

2017–18 Ashes series The 2017–18 Ashes series (named Magellan Ashes Series for sponsorship reasons) was a series of Test cricket matches contested between England and Australia for The Ashes. The series was played at five venues across Australia between 23 Novembe ...

, though he ended up not playing in any of the international matches. In October 2018, he was added to England's Test squad for the series against Sri Lanka. He made his Test debut for England against

on 6 November 2018, scoring 107 in the first innings and getting England to a competitive total. He was the 20th batsman for England to score a century on debut in Tests, the second English wicket-keeper to do so after

Matt Prior Matthew James Prior (born 26 February 1982) is a South African-born English former cricketer, who played for England in Test cricket and for Sussex County Cricket Club in domestic cricket. He was a wicket-keeper and his aggressive right-handed ...

, and the fifth keeper-batsman overall. In April 2019, Foakes was added to England's squad for the one-off

(ODI) against Ireland and the one-off

(T20I) against Pakistan. He replaced

Sam Billings Samuel William Billings (born 15 June 1991) is an English professional cricketer. Billings is a right-handed batsman who fields as a wicket-keeper. He was born at Pembury in Kent and has played for Kent County Cricket Club sides since he was ei ...

who was ruled out of the side with a dislocated shoulder. He made his ODI debut for England against

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

on 3 May 2019, in which he was awarded man of the match for scoring 61 not out, as well as taking two catches and a stumping. He made his T20I debut for England against

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

on 5 May 2019. On 29 May 2020, Foakes was named in a 55-man group of players to begin training ahead of international fixtures starting in England following the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. On 17 June 2020, Foakes was included in England's 30-man squad to start training

behind closed doors Behind Closed Doors may refer to: Film, television and radio Film * ''Behind Closed Doors'' (1929 film), an early talkie starring Virginia Valli * Behind Closed Doors (1961 film), ''Behind Closed Doors'' (1961 film), an Italian comedy film by Dino ...

for the

series against the West Indies. On 4 July 2020, Foakes was named as one of the nine reserve players for the first Test match of the series. In February 2021, Foakes featured in England's away Test series against India in the absence of

Jos Buttler Joseph Charles Buttler (born 8 September 1990), known as Jos Buttler, is an English international cricket, cricketer and former captain of the England cricket team, national team. He plays for Lancashire County Cricket Club, Lancashire in dom ...

from the second Test onwards. In the second Test in Chennai, Foakes made three stumpings, making him the first English keeper to do so in Asia and equaling the English record for most stumpings in a match. Foakes had been in line to play his maiden home Test series but due to a hamstring injury he was not part of England's Test squad for their series against New Zealand in 2021. He played as first-choice wicket-keeper in both 2022 home Test series against

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, making important contributions behind the stumps and with the bat. In the Second Test victory against South Africa he was praised by captain

Ben Stokes Benjamin Andrew Stokes (born 4 June 1991) is an English international cricketer who is List of England cricket captains, the captain of the England cricket team, England Test cricket, Test team. Stokes has played for England in all three forma ...

for his seven catches and a match-defining innings of 113 not out.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Foakes, Ben 1993 births Living people English cricketers England Test cricketers England One Day International cricketers England Twenty20 International cricketers Cricketers from Colchester Essex cricketers Surrey cricketers North v South cricketers Cricketers who made a century on Test debut Wicket-keepers Wisden Cricketers of the Year

Early life and education

Domestic career

International career

See also

References

External links