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

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

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

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

, having previously played for

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

. 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 A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

and

Twenty20 International A Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of cricket, played between two of the international members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), in which each team faces a maximum of twenty overs. The matches have top-class status and are the ...

teams in 2019. He plays as a right-handed

wicket-keeper-batsman A wicket-keeper-batter is a type of player in cricket who fields primarily as a wicket-keeper and is particularly adept as a batsman. While they offer a similar advantage to a team as an all-rounder, that term is usually used to refer to players ...

Early life and education

Foakes was born in

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colches ...

and educated at

Tendring Technology College Tendring Technology College is a secondary school with Sixth Form College located in Essex, England. It is one of the five secondary schools in the Tendring district, along with Clacton Coastal Academy, Clacton County High School, Colne and the ...

. 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. Career ...

County cricket

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 populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population. Sri Lanka is an island in the ...

at the

County Ground, Chelmsford The Essex County Ground (ECG) is a cricket venue in Chelmsford, Essex, England. It has been used by Essex County Cricket Club for first-class cricket since 1925 and List A matches since 1969, and has been the county's official home ground sinc ...

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

Thisara Perera Narangoda Liyanaarachchige Thisara Chirantha Perera ( si, තිසර පෙරේරා; born 3 April 1989), popularly as Thisara Perera, is a former Sri Lankan international cricketer who played all formats for the national team. He also cap ...

. 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 In music * Cat ...

from behind the

stump Stump may refer to: * Stump (band), a band from Cork, Ireland and London, England * Stump (cricket), one of three small wooden posts which the fielding team attempt to hit with the ball *Stump (dog): Clussexx Three D Grinchy Glee (born 1998), 200 ...

s, 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. On 14 August 2014, it was announced that Foakes 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 London ...

International cricket

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 (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

. 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, 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 Sam, SAM or variants may refer to: Places * Sam, Benin * Sam, Boulkiemdé, Burkina Faso * Sam, Bourzanga, Burkina Faso * Sam, Kongoussi, Burkina Faso * Sam, Iran * Sam, Teton County, Idaho, United States, a populated place People and fictional ...

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

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

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 ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

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, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. On 17 June 2020, Foakes was included in England's 30-man squad to start training behind closed doors 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) is an English cricketer who captains the England cricket team in limited overs cricket, and plays for the England Test team. In domestic cricket he represents Lancashire, having previously played ...

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 hamstring injury he couldn't be 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 ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, 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 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 Sportspeople from Colchester Essex cricketers Surrey cricketers North v South cricketers Cricketers who made a century on Test debut Wicket-keepers

Early life and education

County cricket

International cricket

See also

References

External links