“Trouble”.

That was the agonised verdict of a Somerset follower after seeing Ben Foakes fling himself way to his left to pouch a magnificent catch which removed Archie Vaughan, presaging his side’s meltdown at the Kia Oval last month.

He added, a little grudgingly it must be said: “Wonderful effort”.

It was, yet they have become almost commonplace in Foakes’s decade-long tenure behind the stumps for Surrey, since arriving from Essex.

As if the visitors did not have enough problems, on a day in which they lost six wickets for 13 runs on the way to being soundly beaten, Foakes being at his best was not calculated to cheer them up.

Even Migael Pretorius’s sterling attempt to hold up Surrey, who had reduced his side to 38 for seven and were closing in on victory by an innings, was ended by another sublime Foakes moment.

The South African seamer had cracked 54, ensuring the arrears of 84 on first innings were finally cleared, when he attempted to clip James Taylor through the legside. Instead he got an outside edge and Foakes, seeing the ball late, plunged to his right and held another stunning catch, this time one-handed.

Perhaps even more satisfying had been his slick take in the first innings as Jack Leach glanced off-spinner Dan Lawrence down the legside.

The irony of the situation was that Foakes was accompanied on the field by Jamie Smith and Ollie Pope, who between them kept in all 12 Tests played by England since the start of last season, while Somerset’s James Rew is among those regarded as a possible international successor behind the stumps.

Yet for all those who believe that the best wicketkeeper in the country should be picked by England, Foakes appears to have little chance of selection. A career of 25 Tests has included two centuries and a batting average a shade under 30 but it seems the current management have decided his batting is not sufficiently dynamic. Both Smith – who has made a fine start to his own international career with both bat and gloves – and Pope, deputising ably in New Zealand last autumn much as he has done in the past for both county and country, are ahead of him in the national reckoning.

Foakes has seemingly made peace with the situation and looks to be enjoying his cricket for Surrey, whose supporters know they are lucky to have such a craftsman to watch and whose bowlers relish the opportunities he conjures up.

Should he give up hopes of a recall? Under the current management/captaincy duo of Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes the answer seems to be yes.

But England are faced with a home Test series against India and then an Ashes tour to Australia, where they have lost 13 of their past 15 Tests. Three of the past five Australian tours have been such disasters that they have prompted changes at the top and by then McCullum will have been running the Test side for almost four years. A new coach might see it differently and it’s worth remembering that Bob Taylor, regarded as the finest in the land but kept out by the equally magnificent Alan Knott for so long, played all but one of his 57 Tests having turned 36.

By Richard Spiller