There cannot have been many more pleased to see Ben Foakes start his season with a fine hundred at Lancashire last week than his Surrey team-mate Jamie Smith.
Foakes himself, of course, whose century provided the perfect start to a run of games in which he must, through little fault of his own, once again make the case to hold onto his England shirt as Jonny Bairstow nears a return.
But beyond that, no player has more to gain from Foakes’s possible Ashes involvement this summer than Smith, who would be in line to take the gloves for the county champions in his absence.
“He’s a fantastic player and a fantastic wicketkeeper,” Smith tells Standard Sport of his senior colleague. “The best in the world in my opinion — I think in a lot of people’s opinion.
“He’s deserved that opportunity and I hope for him that it does come about. But, yeah, it would present me with a great opportunity to do something that I’d really like to do a bit more than I do.”
At just 22, and despite having to bide his time at Surrey, Smith is already being talked up as a future England gloveman, perhaps the man to fill the void once Bairstow, Foakes and Jos Buttler reach the end.
Despite what turned into an underwhelming 2022 season with the bat (Smith made 379 runs in the County Championship last term — 234 of those in one innings), the youngster was backed by England as part of the Lions set-up for a second successive winter and justified his inclusion with a blistering 71-ball hundred against Sri Lanka in a four-day game in Galle.
That innings, for its ‘Bazball’-compliance as much as anything, has increased the number of eyeballs trained on his return to action with Surrey. Smith, though, is not getting carried away with the hype.
“It would be fantastic to get an opportunity to play for England at any point in my career,” he says. “[But] I wouldn’t say I’m looking at it now as a goal, for the short term or the long term.” Instead, a more pressing ambition — and one hardly less lofty — is “to show that I’m good enough to take over from the best in the world” should England duty keep Foakes out of Surrey contention during the height of the summer.
You get to experience being around world-class international players day in, day out
Playing as a specialist bat at No6, Smith made his own solid start to the year with a half-century in last week’s draw at Old Trafford, but taking up residency behind the stumps would provide the job security that has so far proved elusive, due to the sheer depth of talent at Surrey’s disposal.
“It is tough when you’re not always the mainstay of the side,” he adds. “So, I guess that’s the first thing: you want to try and nail down a consistent spot in the team. [But] you can’t look at it as a negative. You can only see it as a positive — you get to experience being around world-class international players day in, day out.
“In the T20 side, for example, we had 10 international players at times. So, to be included as the 11th gives you a lot of confidence and probably means more than people give themselves credit for.”
Having used the Lions’ tour of Sri Lanka to pick the brains of England batting great Ian Bell, part of the coaching staff, with Alec Stewart as Surrey’s director of cricket and Foakes in the dressing room, Smith’s development as a keeper ought to take care of itself.
“You’re very lucky to be in a situation where you’ve got two people who are world-class at what they did,” he adds. “It’s not a bad place to be.”
