BEN’S HERE FOR KEEPS

How can England drop fantastic Foakes... but his latest performance threatens to leave selectors stumped

ANOTHER special day for Ben Foakes will have England cricket chiefs scrambling around for an official ECB paracetamol supplier ahead of a mammoth selection headache in Kandy.

The idea the man parachuted in as emergency injury cover for Jonny Bairstow should make way once England’s regular wicketkeeper is fit has surely been torched by his display with bat and gloves.

Foakes’ brilliant century has put his team on course for a maiden Test win in Galle, puts him up with Matt Prior as just the second England keeper to score a hundred in his first Test innings, and makes him the only one to score a ton in Asia.

But with Bairstow almost certain to return in Kandy, how he does so while improving the top order and keeping a bowling attack to take 20 wickets is a real puzzle.

One idea is to move Ben Stokes up to No.3 and use Moeen Ali as a frontline bowler, with Bairstow in at No.5, which will weaken the bowling, but could solve a problem Prior reckons is the most pressing.

“What we don’t want to do is create an issue where there isn’t one, just because Ben Foakes has now come in and done really well,” said Prior.

“There are other areas in this England team that really need work and now we’re having a discussion over the one area that was actually pretty solid in Buttler and Bairstow. I think our focus should be on our top four and making sure they start performing and getting some runs on the board.”

Foakes was caught for 107, reaching his ton with a four, as England were 342 all out.

The three centuries scored by the team’s bottom five batsmen this year is as many as the top six managed. But it was Foakes’ work behind the stumps in keeping to the spinners that really caught the eye.

None more so than the stumping off Adil Rashid to remove Sri Lanka skipper Dinesh Chandimal and pave the way for England to restrict them to an under par 203 and lead by 177 at the close.

Foakes said: “When that ball got over the boundary it was just a feeling of relief, a lot of joy, but relief.”

Moeen was outstanding, taking 4-66.