England's 24-year-old batter Jamie Smith made his first appearance on international stage in India on January 25. Smith replaced young Jacob Bethell in the side and contributed with a 12-ball 22 cameo. He impressed former India head coach Ravi Shastri who was in commentary panel as well. Ahead of the third T20I, Smith revealed the reason behind not putting his name in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 mega auction. However, he wants to showcase his skills so that he plays IPL in future.
"With a young family at home and the potential to be away a lot with England this year, there's a lot of cricket, it was best for me to pull out this year. Family has always been my priority, you are a long time on the road and any time I can spend at home, is good. This is a long tour, two or three months, so I want to be at home as much as I can. Hopefully, I can showcase what I am about as a cricketer for potential IPL moving forward. it's definitely something I want to try," Smith was quoted as saying by Sky Sports.
Smith has replaced Jonny Bairstow in the Test side and averages over 40 in the format. He is yet to show his mettle in ODIs and T20Is. n his T20I debut, he walked in to bat at no.6 and hit in-form Varun Chakravarthy for a six. He hit left-arm spinner Abhishek Sharma for a six and a four as well before getting caught at long-off by Tilak Varma.
Smith happy with clarity on his role
Smith applauded the clarity in role he has been given in the England side. He is happy to bat in the middle order but is open to any role he gets in the batting lineup.
"I want to play all formats for England. That's the main goal. I'm seeing these games [as] an opportunity I get to experiment and showcase my skills, I want to do that. It would be nice to fix down a role so that everyone knows that you are going to be that number six batter in T20, it gives you a little bit more clarity to train and prepare with. I've got a very clear role in the Test side, keeping wicket and batting seven. That makes it much easier to prepare for. I feel confident I can go out and perform in any role that is thrown at me," the Surrey-born cricketer said.
Smith is likely to play in the third T20I as well which will be played in Rajkot on January 27.