Jamie Smith’s IPL journey took a painful turn last year when he discovered there were no takers for him at the league’s mini-auction. With a reserve price of ₹2 crore, the figure itself suggested a certain level of self-belief from the wicketkeeper-batter—because the lower the starting valuation, the more it often reflects uncertainty around a player’s demand. For Smith, that disappointment arrived at a particularly tough time, as the Ashes had already begun and he was struggling through the storied contest, especially with the bat. That rough patch, it appears, was enough to make franchise decision-makers look elsewhere.
Instead of letting that setback define his season, Smith chose to reboot his career in the most practical way possible: by getting consistent red-ball cricket under his belt. He is currently featuring for Surrey in county cricket, and on Friday he produced a stunning innings of 166 against Leicestershire at the Kia Oval. Surrey ended the opening day at 412/6, and Smith’s knock has put him firmly back on the right trajectory.
Speaking with the benefit of hindsight, Smith said that the IPL had always been part of his ambitions. “At the time, I would have definitely liked to have gone [to the IPL]. It’s an ambition of mine to strengthen all sides of my game. I see the IPL as something that can really enhance the white-ball side and it does have benefits again to the red-ball [game],” he explained. He added that, even if the move didn’t happen last year, coming to the Oval and spending time on the finer details of his craft has been valuable. “But in hindsight, yeah, it’s fantastic to come here and have a block of red-ball [cricket] behind me. I felt that towards the back end of the summer and into the winter, technically, I felt a little bit out of kilter,” Smith said.
The Surrey star also described how he is approaching the county run as a deliberate training window. “It’s been nice to come here [The Oval] and work on a couple of things, and then I’ll be able to hopefully implement them, for six or seven [County Championship] games, and we’ll see where we get to if there’s any England stuff after that. But, yeah, it’s nice to have a little block to try and get things right,” he added.
For Smith, the past few months have been anything but smooth. After England’s home Test series against India last year, results and performances did not go his way. Against Shubman Gill’s team, he managed 434 runs at an impressive average of 62—evidence that he can still dominate at Test level when conditions align. Yet, during the Ashes later in the year, he struggled to find rhythm. Across five Tests, he scored just one fifty, and he also missed the chance to dismiss Australia’s most dangerous batter, Travis Head, once—an omission that can feel especially costly in series where small margins decide outcomes.
On the shorter formats, Smith was also left out of England’s T20 squads for Sri Lanka and the T20 World Cup earlier this year. He did not present his situation as an excuse, but he did point to the sheer volume of cricket—particularly the five-match series—as one factor behind his less-than-expected output behind the wicket. “Mistakes are going to happen,” he said. “The India series was physically and mentally very tough. It was my first five-Test series. Also, we were out in the field for 22 out of 25 days or something stupid, and all the Tests lasted [five days]. By the end, it was just actual exhaustion: I was just knackered physically and mentally from all that had gone.”
From that experience, Smith said the key lesson is how to protect performance levels from the first match to the last, even when the schedule is draining. “From there, the learning was, how can you make sure that from the first to the last game, your standards are still as high as possible?” he reflected. He drew a parallel with Australia as well. “It was similar in Australia, to be honest. I know a few of the games didn’t last as long as people were expecting or wanting, but again, I don’t feel like my standards were down too much,” Smith concluded.
