How Bazball's baby showed merit in England's thinking

BBC News

2 days ago

England's Tuesday began stuck in traffic.It was Jamie Smith who ensured there were no dangers of them grinding to a halt thereafter.The team that arrived at The Oval on e-bikes after traffic problems in London were powered to their victory by a freewheeling Smith, who followed a duck in Cardiff with an electric 64 from 28 balls to clinch a series clean sweep."I wanted to push out my chest a bit and say that I'm good enough to open the batting," Smith, 24, said after the seven-wicket win.On the face of it, England's decision to employ Smith as an opener in this series is one straight from the playbook of out-of-the-box decisions made in the Brendon McCullum era of English cricket.If Shoaib Bashir being called up for the Test side on the back of six first-class appearances was rogue, asking Smith to open the batting for a floundering 50-over side at the start of a new era - a position he has never batted in professional cricket - was not far behind.
But in reality, despite regular 50-over openers Will Jacks or Tom Banton looking the frontrunners in the squad beforehand, Smith was always the obvious candidate - he is, after all, Bazball's favourite son.Ben Foakes did little wrong in India in 2024 but by England's next Test, Smith had replaced him.After 70 on debut and 95 in his third Test, the talk around Smith was glowing. When he made his maiden Test century a match later against Sri Lanka there were already suggestions he should take a job proving as troublesome to fill as the manager's role at Old Trafford - England's Test number three.Jacob Bethell's emergence has put that one on the backburner but when McCullum took over as England's white-ball coach last September it was no coincidence Smith was recalled to the set-up for the next series.Captain Harry Brook revealed last week McCullum was talking about the possibility of Smith opening at the Champions Trophy in Pakistan - before incumbent Phil Salt had been shown the door."Me and Baz think Smudge could be an unbelievable white-ball opener," Brook said before the series.It is no criticism but Brook has begun to sound like a jammed cassette when outlining his ideal batter since taking the job.From Leeds to London, "we want batters that can put their best balls under pressure" he has said again and again - and again.Smith could have hardly have done that better than he did in the third ODI.The Surrey academy product received nine balls on a 'good length' under the lights at his cricketing home and scored 20 runs at a strike-rate north of 200. Across the match, his batting contemporaries managed 56 runs off 71 balls against such deliveries.England's fascination with Smith comes with all of the caveats of his international career being only 24 matches old but with the knowledge that at his best he can seemingly do it all.On this very ground against Sri Lanka last year he scored 15 from his first 31 deliveries in a Test before crashing 52 off his next 18.
He has a technically solid defence and drives through the covers with ease. But he can also pick the ball off a length and deposit it over mid-wicket as he did on Tuesday."He's not a slogger, is he? He's playing proper shots," was how Brook put it succinctly.England also know the importance of an opening partnership if their rebirth after the troubles of Jos Buttler's final 18 months as captain is to be successful.Eoin Morgan's World Cup-winning team had Buttler's fireworks, a match-winner in Ben Stokes and Joe Root's calmness but none of that would have been possible without Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow setting platforms that would have been too big for the 1970s.In Tests, England's best performances under McCullum captaincy - in Rawalpindi, at The Oval, or at Edgbaston - have all been built on significant opening partnerships.Like Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley against the red ball, Duckett and Smith attack the white like they are playing different sports.To get technical, Duckett's average interception point against seamers is around 1.77m, 33cm behind Smith's.While right-hander Smith targets boundaries in front of him, left-hander Duckett has scored only 18% his career runs against pacers in the 'V'.And in McCullum, Smith has a coach who opened 107 times in ODIs and did so in a New Zealand side that reached a World Cup final - an ideal sounding board should one be needed.As one may expect with England's relaxed approach, however, Smith has largely been left to create his own plans during his first week in the job."He knows how to bat," Brook said."Like I said so many times, he's done it in Test cricket for periods. "He's gonna have a good go at it at the top in one-day cricket and I think everybody's excited to see how he goes."Brook knows there will be bumps to come but Smith will be given every chance to lead England on their ride.