Surrey 412 for 6 (Smith 166, Pope 103, Foakes 62*) vs Leicestershire
Jamie Smith removed any lingering doubt about whether he would keep his England place after a disappointing Ashes series with a second successive hundred for Surrey, cruising to 166 against Leicestershire at The Oval. The more pertinent question now surrounds his role: after two centuries from No. 3 in a week, will England consider pushing Smith up the order?
When he returned from Australia in January, Smith was in limbo. Not only had he underwhelmed with the bat in his first Ashes series, making 211 runs in 10 innings, he had provided two moments which seemed to epitomise England's sloppiness: a bad drop off Travis Head at the Gabba, and an ugly dismissal to a Marnus Labuschagne bouncer in Sydney.
After a bright first impression as an international cricketer, Smith's stock had fallen sharply. He had lost his place in England's white-ball set-up after a brief, unsuccessful foray as an opener, and went unsold in December's IPL auction. Despite a Test average of 41.48, his position as England's wicketkeeper felt uncertain.
Now, barely a week into the County Championship season, it seems certain that he will be given another opportunity against New Zealand in June. After edging behind for 9 on the opening day at Edgbaston last week, Smith knuckled down to hit 132 in a high-scoring draw and followed it up with another classy, measured hundred in front of 4700 fans at The Oval on Friday.
While Smith is likely to retain his position as England's Test keeper, he could yet have a future as a top-order batter. He appears to have tightened up his defence since Australia's seamers exploited his vulnerability to the nip-backer, and he was tested early on against the moving ball - albeit by a Leicestershire attack that is significantly slower than those found at Test level.
His recent success at No. 3 brings with it the possibility that he could bat in the top three for England - perhaps alongside Ben Duckett and Jacob Bethell, and enabling James Rew to take the gloves from the middle order. It is an outside bet, with Smith likely to continue at No. 6 or 7 and as keeper, but the odds must have shortened in the past week.
Smith does not keep wicket for Surrey due to Ben Foakes' presence in the middle order, and has put his hand up to move up the order this season with Ollie Pope shuffling down to No. 4. The switch was designed to allow Smith to bat at his own tempo and has worked a treat, with Pope embracing home comforts on his way to his 25th first-class hundred.
They added 200 as a pair for the third wicket, and brought up individual centuries within three balls of one another in mid-afternoon. Pope fell soon after, fiddling behind off Leicestershire debutant Ajaz Patel for 103, but Smith marched on into the evening session before edging to slip for 166.
Smith was recently offered a late chance to go to the IPL as a replacement player but decided that his career would be best served by a block of first-class cricket. It cannot have been an easy decision to turn down the biggest franchise league in the world, but his decision to work on his red-ball game has already paid off.
He walked out after two overs following Dom Sibley's dismissal - trapped lbw by the one-cap left-armer Josh Hull - and did not offer a genuine chance until his eventual dismissal in the 90th. There was no sign of the player who seemed determined to attack every ball in Australia until the evening session, when he launched Rehan Ahmed over long-on to bring up Surrey's 300.
"Oz was probably the first time he had struggled a little bit," Pope said of Smith. "The hunger that he has shown over the last two weeks to get two big hundreds and put that behind him and use the learnings as a positive is key in your career. The way he's bounced back after that winter is awesome."
Pope was fortunate to survive a tight lbw shout off Ian Holland on 50, and admitted that he does not yet feel at his best, early in the process of trying to "strip my game back" over the past six weeks. That has involved working with Stuart Welch, his childhood batting coach at Cranleigh School, as well as Jim Troughton and Marcus Trescothick.
"I tried to just find a stubborn side to me to find a way through the challenging bits," he said. "I'm doing a bit of work on my game to try and get back to my very best and managed to get the three figures. Obviously runs are the currency, so to do that's nice and hopefully it's the first of a few this year."
It has long been apparent that Pope is good enough to dominate at county level, and it will take some time for him to prove to England that he can succeed against the best. But his hundred was a reminder that he could yet come again as a Test batter - and if he does not, then Surrey will have plenty more days like this to enjoy over the next decade.
