Day 45: Love for Foakes

One of the few positives to come out of the second Test for England is Ben Foakes with both the gloves and bat. There have of course been calls for him to be a regular behind the stumps for England. His performance over the last two days has come with a bit of an 'I told you so' vibe.

When the ball is turning sharply, you need a stumper who knows what they are doing. It also showed in his batting as he was able to play India's spin attack with more ease than everyone else; including Joe Root who has shown just how good he is against the turning ball this year.

A lot has been said about the pitch and how there has been too much turn and variable bounce. It isn't a great look for a second day Test pitch. As Test match connoisseurs people want to see five days of an even contest, where the contest between bat and ball is even.

To a certain degree, we need to see players develop skills to deal with all conditions. I love games that runs are hard to come by for both teams, where every run is prized. There has to be an even element of conditions.

I hear the argument that the ball swings dramatically in England, and it can do for several reasons. The overhead conditions, the amount of grass on the pitch, and the state of the ball.

An element of the battle when that is the case is how to survive the first session, and then batting will usually become easier. Then again, there is a lot of conditioning when it comes to how players go about red-ball cricket, which is one of the beauties of cricket. It would be so dull if batters teed off and were able to hit the boundary with ease.

England's women won their first game on their tour of New Zealand, with a win by 20 runs. It looked like a good workout for many of the squad. What has become evident is that England won't be changing things up. However, some reports have said that Amy Jones and Tammy Beaumont shared the wicketkeeping duties.

Is that a change in England's thinking? Beaumont didn't keep in the warm-up games at Derby last year. Having kept wicket a lot for both Kent and in the KSL Beaumont is a good keeper. It might suggest that Jones, who is regarded as the best keeper in England, needs to score more runs on a more consistent basis.