Bold choices and a change of mood: how Ed Smith has performed so far
What he has achieved
Victory, and clarity Ed Smith’s first Test in charge left him badly needing a win in the second match. He helped secure it by keeping faith with 10 of his first XI while showing a necessary ruthlessness by dropping Mark Stoneman (just as he had with James Vince). “Mark,” Smith said, “has experienced a disappointing start to the season and had a difficult Test match at Lord’s.” He struck the right balance between bluntness and empathy, and avoided the trap that lies in wait for anyone employed by the England and Wales Cricket Board: blathering jargon.
A modest reboot Without making many unforced changes Smith has given the Test team a different tinge. When Jack Leach was injured Smith sprang a surprise by summoning another Somerset spinner, Dom Bess. Boyishly eager and undaunted, he has been a Bess of fresh air. Even his bowling, anodyne at Lord’s, blossomed at Headingley. It is hard to imagine him giving Virat Kohli nightmares in August but he can start googling the sights of Sri Lanka.
Smith’s bravest choice has been Jos Buttler, airlifted straight from the Indian Premier League. It looked like backfiring when Buttler nicked off for 14 at Lord’s; but then he made a classy 67, often standing outside his crease, a ploy that several team mates aped at Headingley. Buttler added a memorable unbeaten 80, scoring fast, then slowly and finally at IPL speed. If Stuart Broad’s batting had not fallen apart, Buttler would have collected a first Test hundred.
By promoting Sam Curran when Ben Stokes was injured Smith repeated his trick with Bess – injecting youthful energy and cheerful multitasking. One could see England’s mood change: Joe Root, who got in a fretful muddle at Lord’s with his field placings, was all smiles.
The right amount of intellect Smith is the most educated selection supremo of the past half-century. While his predecessors left school for the county circuit or National Service he went to Peterhouse, Cambridge, to get a first in history. On Tuesday night, back in Cambridge, he is giving a lecture entitled “Why sport belongs to the humanities as much as to the sciences”.
Smith’s brainpower has sometimes been resented in the dressing room, where a lot of learning is a dangerous thing. So it has been refreshing – even to a friend of his – to see him play it down this summer. At his first press conference he said there were no great principles at work, just the desire to win. This was probably two-thirds true. There are themes: he likes cricketers with flair, with “unique qualities” (as he said of Buttler) and/or a strong temperament, hence his admiration for Alastair Cook and preference for Keaton Jennings. So far Smith has played the former journalist – pragmatic, armed with the facts – rather than the intellectual. At 40 he may be wise enough not to be too clever.
A certain presence A few former cricketers, hovering on the outfield before the start, look uncomfortable in their civvies – either forced into a suit and tie, if working for Sky, or going too far the other way, as in Michael Vaughan’s T-shirt under a blazer, or Geoff Boycott’s lifelong attachment to the short-sleeved shirt. Smith is a sharp dresser who may have been the first Times leader writer with a sideline in menswear features. He wears a suit for fun. And when the cameras find him sitting on a balcony, he is in grey-rimmed sunglasses which allow him to be inscrutable while exuding a certain presence. This is not something ever got from Alec Bedser.
What he still has to do...
Fine-tune the batting Dawid Malan was the only Pom to leave Australia with an enhanced reputation apart from the commentator Alison Mitchell. But he is less impressive in England, where his reluctance to go forward makes him vulnerable to the moving ball. In seven home Tests he averages only 21. The jury is out on Stoneman’s replacement as opener, Jennings, who was purposeful at Headingley but fell for 29 to a routine nibble. And the two keepers, Buttler and Jonny Bairstow, may be the wrong way round: the one with the gloves is two places higher, thus getting a shorter rest and less chance to make runs.
Find a fast bowler After being outgunned in Australia England turned back to Mark Wood. That continued at Lord’s even though the alternative, Chris Woakes, has a far better record in England. Wood is rapid but, while struggling with injury, has mislaid the ability to bother top batsmen. So it proved at Lord’s, though it did not help that Root had him bowling Bodyline. Smith reacted by recalling Woakes, who showed some glaring rust before taking four wickets. The challenge remains: find a bowler fast enough to trouble good players on flat tracks, not to mention a topclass spinner. But Smith has made his mark. As a player he swam in his first Test before sinking in the next two; as a selector he has already reversed that. This time he should last more than half a summer.