The square turner at the Chepauk for the second Test and the Ahmedabad dust bowl provided for the ‘pink ball’ game are hardest surfaces that Ben Foakes has kept on in his nascent international career.
India have put England on the mat with a couple of tracks which aided the home spinners as Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel ran riot, giving India 2-1 lead in the four-match series.
“Last two games are the hardest pitches I have kept on. In the last game the pink ball was skidding, I haven’t seen a wicket like that and keeping on it was a good challenge,” Foakes, who has replaced Jos Buttler as per England’s rotation policy, said during a virtual media conference.
By his own admission, Foakes hasn’t seen a cricket ball turn so much.
“The two pitches that I have played, I have never seen ball turn like that. It's certainly very challenging. It’s like having day five pitch from ball one.”
But for one of world’s best glovesman, the last two games were learning experience and real fun.
“When the ball spins, it’s fun to keep and in Sri Lanka, it was easy because it was consistent and you knew the ball is going to turn. What I found during pink ball Test was it could spin square past batter or it could skid.”
He admitted that no keeper can take every catch on these sort of tracks.
“On these sort of pitches, you cant catch every ball.”
“The way I have approached is three matches for England and try and play as well as I can. Not look too far ahead and enjoy the moment I guess,” he said.