Australia great Adam Gilchrist heaped praises on England's Ben Foakes by terming him the "best wicketkeeper" to spin bowling. Foakes is part of the England team in their ongoing five-match series in India. Gilchrist is duly impressed with the glovework of the 31-year-old behind the stumps. Foakes failed to make noticeable contributions with the bat in the first two Test against India but his wicketkeeping definitely helped his side in the series. The player was involved in some crucial breakthroughs by the virtue of his stumping and catching skills.
"Ben Foakes is the best wicket-keeper to spin-bowling I have ever seen. Again, I have not seen enough of him standing back to the stumps because for some reason, they don't want to play him if there's not going to be a lot of spin," said Gilchrist while speaking on the Club Prairie Fire podcast.
"But what he did in the second Test was beyond belief. The catches he was taking, under-edges off spin bowlers was absolute class. You're meant to be rising with the ball but then all of a sudden you're going back down but his hands are just butter," he added.
The India vs England five-match Test series is perfectly poised at 1-1. The Ben Stokes-led side won the first game by 28 runs in Hyderabad before Rohit Sharma and Co. bounced back with a 106-run victory in Vizag.
The third game of the series is being played in Rajkot.
India were all out for 445 in their first innings on the second day of the match against England on Friday. Rohit Sharma (131) and Ravindra Jadeja (112) struck fine hundreds while debutant Sarfaraz Khan made a promising start to his Test career with an impressive 62 off 66 balls.
In his first international outing, wicketkeeper-batter Dhruv Jurel too batted very well for a neat 46 off 104 balls and the seasoned Ravichandran Ashwin chipped in with 37 while sharing a 77-run partnership for the eighth wicket.
For England, returning pacer Mark Wood finished with figures of 4/114 in 27.5 overs.
(With PTI Inputs)