ESSEX wicketkeeper James Foster returned to the county fold on Monday night with the roars of approval for his performance for England still ringing in his ears. They may have gone out of the competition at the Super Eight stage, and Foster may well have

ESSEX wicketkeeper James Foster returned to the county fold on Monday night with the roars of approval for his performance for England still ringing in his ears.

They may have gone out of the competition at the Super Eight stage, and Foster may well have been overlooked for the Ashes training squad this week, but he is still bubbling from his experiences in the Twenty20 World Cup.

"I thoroughly enjoyed being involved in the England environment, it's been the best part of seven years since I was part of that scene," he said.

"It was nice to be playing with some of the best guys in the world. That's why you train and practice hard because you want to test yourself against the best and I had that opportunity."

The 29-year-old was not outstanding with the bat, though he held his own throughout the tournament, but it was with the gloves where his expertise shone through.

Two stunning stumpings of Younis Khan and Dwayne Bravo were the highlight of the competition for Foster, though he was slightly disappointed with his run tally.

"Personally, I would have like to have scored more runs," he revealed. "I guess it's always difficult going in for the last over or two and score a quick few runs, and it's not easy facing some of the death bowlers.

"I was reasonably happy with the way that I kept, I thought it was pretty steady."

Foster felt that England were unfortunate to go out of the competition to the West Indies.

"I was gutted we didn't get through to the semi-finals because I thought we were shaping up really well against West Indies, but it wasn't to be and we just missed out.

"We really believed that we could go through, but as it turned out, the Duckworth/Lewis calculation was not overly favourable to is, but that's cricket."

Against Middlesex at Chelmsford on Monday, Foster claimed one catch and helped out in two run outs, though he was denied a chance at the crease as Essex stormed to an impressive victory.