When I got dropped it felt like they were moving on

Ben Foakes on being axed by England in a 10-second chat, the freedom of moving on and his Twenty20 ambitions

- Taha Hashim

The question hung around for years, jumped from one season to the next and never produced a confident answer. Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler or Ben Foakes: who should keep wicket for England's Test team?

That debate has lost relevance. When Jamie Smith went on paternity leave for the tour of New Zealand at the end of last year, Essex's Jordan Cox was his replacement. When Cox fractured his thumb before the series, Durham's Ollie Robinson was next on the call sheet, though Ollie Pope ended up with the gloves for all three Tests. A younger crowd has moved in to take the space, Foakes and Bairstow having been left out after last year's tour of India.

"It's quite clear that they're moving on," Foakes says. "All throughout my career I've had the England thing - even if I'm picked or not, I've had that as my main focus and drive. Those shitty days that you don't want to be in the gym or whatever it might be, that's your thing that keeps you going.

"When I got dropped this time it felt like them moving on from the me, Jos, Jonny sort of thing. That felt like the end so that's a difficult position mentally to be in, in terms of what is your next step to keep you trying to perform."