Jamie Smith given platform to be England's Adam Gilchrist with opener promotion
Jamie Smith will open against West Indies as England begin their ODI rebuild under new captain Harry Brook by looking to the Test team for inspiration.
Smith will be aiming to emulate Adam Gilchrist as a keeper turned ODI opener after replacing Phil Salt at the top of the order. Salt was part of the team that bombed at the Champions Trophy earlier this year, losing three matches out of three.
Gilchrist, who like Smith batted at No 7 in Tests, scored 9,200 ODI runs with 16 centuries in 260 games as an opener, winning three World Cups with Australia. Of players who started their ODI careers before 2000, only five batsmen have a better strike rate.
Smith will open for the first time in List A cricket against West Indies at Edgbaston on Thursday in the first of a three-match series. Brook and Brendon McCullum start their era by packing the batting with five of the Test team's top seven.
Smith's partnership with Ben Duckett also has echoes of the Test team. Smith, like Zak Crawley, is a tall right-hander offering a contrast that has at times messed up the lengths of bowlers in Test cricket.
Jacob Bethell and Brydon Carse, both Test players, were also named in the XI as England look to start afresh following the resignation of Jos Buttler as captain after three global tournament failures in a row.
England are eighth in the world rankings and lost nine of their last 10 ODIs, giving Brook an opportunity to breathe new life into a flagging outfit. He has started by promoting Smith, and 'stacking' the lower order with all-rounders. Bethell returns from the IPL to bat at six with Will Jacks, who was at No 3 now at seven, and Jamie Overton at eight.
Smith, 24, batted at No 3 at the Champions Trophy and struggled, recording a high score of 15 in three innings as he tried to be an aggressor from ball one. Now he will be given the licence to build an innings and encouraged to go through the gears as England back his potential to be an important performer in all formats of the game.
'Me and Baz just have this burning desire that he could be an amazing white-ball opener,' said Brook. 'He's got the strength to do so, the technique to be able to face the swinging ball. As we've seen in Test cricket he's a very good player. He can put their best balls under pressure from any position.'
"Even Sir Viv would've been proud of that one" 🤩
Jamie Smith on the charge 💪 pic.twitter.com/DJVb2PK2Uw
— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) July 11, 2024
England were guilty under Buttler of confusing ODI cricket as an extension of Twenty20 and lost the ability to cruise. Only Duckett and Joe Root showed that knack at the Champions Trophy, scoring run-a-ball hundreds. Since the 2023 World Cup, the failure of England batsmen to make hundreds, with just seven in 25 innings, was a costly, unwanted hallmark.
Ten years ago Edgbaston witnessed a dramatic England white-ball reboot that ended with a World Cup win at Lord's four years later. Then it was about casting off the shackles and, Eoin Morgan declared, playing 'catch up' with the rest of the world. Freed up, England scored 408 for nine against New Zealand and a new era of turbo-charged batting was born.
The top six for that game 10 years ago was almost unchanged by the time they beat New Zealand in the World Cup final. Only Alex Hales dropped out for Jonny Bairstow. Building a consistent batting order will be crucial for Brook, particularly given the complications over scheduling with franchise cricket a much greater pull on players than it was in the Morgan years.
The next 50-over World Cup is in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia in the winter of 2027 and all are well equipped to prosper in those conditions. Brook will believe that this top six can go that far, with Buttler and Root at 34 still hungry to carry on. Buttler returned from the IPL for this series when he could have stayed and kept his franchise happy. Not many would have begrudged him that after standing down as captain, but he wants to play for England. Tom Banton waits to take his place and England have missed a chance to build for the future.
Brook's white-ball blueprint
Brook was quick to cite Ben Stokes as his captaincy role model and said he will be 'relaxed, calm' on the field, which sounds like the Morgan way. Brook's blueprint also sounds very McCullum-esque.
'Aggressive. I want the batters to put their best bowlers under pressure, manipulate the field and be able to score big runs, match-winning contributions. The bowling side I want them to work towards wickets and have the skills to be able to bowl to a certain dimension or be able to back themselves to make it hard for the batters. In the field I want them to be 100 per cent committed, chase the ball hard to the boundary.'
The bowling still looks thin and predictable with an attack of right-arm over medium-fast seam bowlers. There is still no left-armer, although Luke Wood was added to the squad this week when Gus Atkinson pulled out injured. Carse plays his first international cricket of the summer and Jacks replaces Liam Livingstone as the spin support for Adil Rashid, who at 37 is keeping Rehan Ahmed waiting.
Brook is only two days into the job and there will be a lot of learning to do for him and a batting line-up that has played little 50-over cricket because of the nature of the modern game. Morgan's side grew quickly, by the end of that New Zealand series they were flying. After such a miserable run England must make a similar statement.
England team for first ODI
1. Ben Duckett
2. Jamie Smith
3. Joe Root
4. Harry Brook (C)
5. Jos Buttler (WK)
6. Jacob Bethell
7. Will Jacks
8. Jamie Overton
9. Brydon Carse
10. Saqib Mahmood
11. Adil Rashid
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