Jamie Smith expects his Surrey team-mate Ollie Pope to make a seamless transition to the England captaincy next week.
A season-ending hamstring tear has meant the baton of responsibility has passed from Ben Stokes to his vice-captain Pope for the three-match Test series against Sri Lanka starting in Manchester next Wednesday.
England will make at least two alterations to their personnel for the opening match at Emirates Old Trafford, with Dan Lawrence replacing broken finger victim Zak Crawley as opener and the selectors mulling over how to cover the loss of all-rounder Stokes, but Smith says Pope’s tactical nous and relaxed demeanour will make light of any disruption.
‘It is obviously a fantastic honour and I know he is someone who will be very proud walking out there and captaining England,’ Smith said.
‘What he will bring is pretty similar to what Ben Stokes brings. He is someone who is a very independent thinker, always thinking on his feet and will not let the game drift.
Jamie Smith (R) expects Ollie Pope (C) to make a seamless transition to the England captaincy
‘He is always looking to be proactive, which is a great skill to have and especially in Test cricket you don’t want to let things stagnate for too long.
This current regime doesn’t want things to be stagnant, so he fits that bill perfectly.’
Pope, 26, has had little by the way of audition for the country’s top job – then again, Stokes had not captained Durham when he took over – although Smith is able to provide an insight into his style having played under him for Surrey in this year’s Vitality Blast.
‘He brought a great calmness, he has great composure and I feel like he settled the side really nicely,’ he reflected.
Change is also on the cards for Smith, who began his Test career with two half-centuries in three appearances from no 7 against West Indies but is now expected to shift up a place in the order as England look to cover Stokes’ absence as a bowler by drafting in either Olly Stone or Matthew Potts as fourth seamer. The other option would be to select uncapped Essex batter Jordan Cox and go in with a four-man attack.
‘It won’t bother me at all. One of the things that’s been great in my career so far is I feel like I’ve batted in a variety of different positions and roles anyway,’ said Smith.
Pope will be standing in for Stokes following his season-ending hamstring injury
‘They might be at a lesser level in the County Championship, but I still feel like I’ve been able to adapt and have some experience under my belt and the difference between no 7 and no 6 isn’t a massively great one anyway.’
Smith found his first foray in Test cricket – three back-to-back wins over the Windies – physically and mentally demanding, leading him to ask Birmingham Phoenix to cut his match schedule this month from six to four, thereby creating an eight-day gap between international and Hundred duty.
It caused something of a kerfuffle given that Smith is not currently a centrally-contracted player. However, he will be the next time he potentially requests time off in December.
The 24-year-old is due to become a father for the first time in the first half of that month, and if he chooses to be at the birth it would rule him out of at least one of the three Tests in New Zealand – the second is in Wellington from December 6-10, with the third in Hamilton between December 14-18.
‘It’s just play it by ear of selection, and there’s no guarantee that I’ll be selected for anything moving forward anyway,’ he said.
‘It’s not really been a massive forefront of my focus right now. It’s sort of just taking every Test series and any game I have at a time and moving on from there.’
As Mail Sport recently reported, England’s selectors have identified Smith as someone capable of playing in both white-ball teams as well as the Test one, but the positioning of the Twenty20 series against Australia next month – it starts the day after the Test summer wraps up – means his participation might be delayed until the one-day matches.
‘It’d be really nice to be a three-format player for England,’ said Smith, capped at 50-over level against Ireland 11 months ago.
‘I think that’d be a pretty cool thing to be a part of. Hopefully that does come and I get some opportunities in the coming months.’
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