Jamie Smith admits his winter did not pan out as planned. The keeper-batter went to the IPL auction in December hoping for a first franchise deal, only to watch every team pass. A few weeks later he lost his place in England’s white-ball squads for Sri Lanka and the T20 World Cup. Now, back at The Oval in early spring, he is trying to make the most of the unexpected gap in his diary.
“At the time, I would have definitely liked to have gone [to the IPL],” Smith said at Surrey’s pre-season media day on Tuesday. “It’s an ambition of mine to strengthen all sides of my game, and I see the IPL as something that can really enhance the white-ball side and does have benefits again to the red-ball [game].”
The 25-year-old’s immediate focus is red-ball cricket. He struggled through England’s 4-1 Ashes defeat, scoring 211 runs in ten innings and managing just one fifty. A mis-hit pull off Marnus Labuschagne in Sydney and a dropped chance off Travis Head in Brisbane stick in the memory almost as much as Australia’s margin of victory. Smith knows he cannot afford another lean patch with a home series against New Zealand starting in June.
“But in hindsight, yeah, it’s fantastic to come here and have a block of red-ball [cricket] behind me. I felt that towards the back end of the summer and into the winter, technically, I felt a little bit out of kilter,” he said. “It’s been nice to come here [The Oval] and work on a couple of things and then I’ll be able to hopefully implement them, for six or seven [County Championship] games, and we’ll see where we get to if there’s any England stuff after that. But, yeah, it’s nice to have a little block to try and get things right.”
Surrey expect to start the season with Ben Foakes behind the stumps, so Smith will resume the hybrid role he has carried out since school: middle-order batter, occasional wicketkeeper, permanent learner. Alec Stewart, back in a full-time position at the club, has already spent hours with him on footwork and glove-work. Smith insists small improvements will come. “Mistakes are going to happen,” he remarked, shrugging off the Gabba drop.
Competition for England’s gloves is growing. Jordan Cox is likely to begin the IPL running drinks for Royal Challengers Bengaluru but remains in the selectors’ thoughts. Somerset’s James Rew, fresh from an impressive Lions tour, could move further up the pecking order with a fast start to the Championship. Even so, national coach Brendon McCullum has not forgotten Smith’s counter-attacking 184 not out against India at Edgbaston last summer, an innings that still underpins a Test average of 41.48.
“The India series was physically and mentally very tough. It was my first five-Test series,” Smith reflected. “Also, we were out in the field for 22 out of 25 days or something stupid, and all the Tests lasted [five days]. By the end, it was just actual exhaustion: I was just knackered physically and mentally from all that had gone.”
That fatigue, he believes, fed into the technical drift that showed up in Australia. A quieter April and May should allow him to reset. Surrey’s opening run of Championship matches – likely on seamer-friendly early-season pitches – will give a clear indication of whether the tweaks have stuck.
If they do, an England recall for Lord’s in early June remains realistic. If not, Smith may revisit the IPL auction next December with rather more urgency. For now, though, a few weeks of school-of-hard-knocks county cricket feels precisely what he needs.
