Surrey wicketkeeper-batter Jamie Smith will relish the prospect to tackle Nathan Lyon in Friday’s season opener at Lancashire however is relaxed about his future worldwide prospects.
Smith made his England bow in September when he appeared in two ODIs towards Eire after a wonderful home marketing campaign.
The 23-year-old has lengthy been earmarked as a future worldwide since he scored a century on his first-class debut in 2019 towards an MCC assault which included Stuart Broad. Final 12 months he turned potential into outcomes.
A tally of 736 red-ball runs helped Surrey to Vitality County Championship success and Smith is worked up to start the brand new marketing campaign towards a high-quality Lancashire line-up that ought to embody Aussie spinner Lyon.
“Yeah, I feel you need to (relish it) and with aspirations of enjoying Check cricket, you’ll come up towards world class gamers anyway,” Smith informed the PA information company.
“There’s all the time a bit bit of study that goes into it and he’s performed quite a bit. Just a few guys have performed towards him within the altering room, so I assume it’s getting these experiences as properly.
“We all know he’s a incredible participant. Nobody will get that many Check wickets (530) with out being a incredible participant so that you respect what he has finished, but in addition play him like anybody else on the day.”
After Smith began the 2022 season with a maiden double ton at Gloucestershire however didn’t again it up, he was decided to deliver a stage of consistency to his recreation final 12 months.
What adopted was two tons of, which included a sensational 114 off 77 balls to assist Surrey chase 501 at Kent, 4 fifties and a median of 40.88 with a 65.3 strike charge.
His success was not simply restricted to red-ball cricket both, with contributions with each the bat and gloves in a position to hearth Surrey to Vitality Blast finals’ day and he additionally starred for Birmingham Phoenix in The Hundred.
It earned Smith two England white-ball caps in September and his title is within the combine for a Check shot ought to Surrey team-mate Ben Foakes be discarded.
Smith added: “That was essential to place a season collectively as an alternative of some scores. For me what was an enormous turning level was staying in step with my strategy.
“There are going to be low scores in there, however as an alternative of panicking about it or altering the way in which you wish to play, I stayed fairly in step with a optimistic model.
“It was clearly an unbelievable finish to a incredible summer time and incredible recognition to have that (England debut).
“Nobody can ever take it away from you that you’ve got represented your nation, irrespective of who it was towards or in what capability.
“It was a proud day for my household. They made lots of sacrifices once I was rising up and nonetheless now, so it was an extremely proud second.
“Once you get a style of one thing like that, you clearly wish to have it once more figuring out that it’s in all probability not my time proper now, with the blokes they’ve obtained picked but when I preserve chipping away and scoring runs you by no means know when the subsequent one may come.
“In case you are outscoring individuals within the County Championship or the Blast and placing in performances, profitable video games when it issues, scoring runs when it issues, then individuals will all the time take discover.”
