England hopeful Jamie Smith opens up on his admiration for Bazball as he targets Test side and admits: 'If you have an air of arrogance, the opposition sense it'

Jamie Smith had only just turned five at the start of the 2005 Ashes, but the memories of Kevin Pietersen in full flow remain vivid. When England's Test team come calling — and it could be as early as July — there is little doubt how Smith will approach the task.

'From a very early age, I loved the way Pietersen batted,' he tells Mail Sport. 'Those Ashes were my first introduction to cricket, and it was just his attacking nature and positivity.

'Half the battle as a batsman is mental. You can walk out with that air of confidence, even borderline arrogance, and the opposition sense it. You only get one chance as a batsman, so you want a slight edge from the start.'

The 23-year-old Smith, who made his international debut during last summer's one-day series against Ireland, is not an obvious Pietersen prototype. The latest Surrey player to pass through the ranks of Whitgift School in Croydon — following Jason Roy, Rory Burns and Dom Sibley — Smith exudes modesty, and is conscious that any talk of the England wicketkeeping role implies bad news for his county team-mate Ben Foakes.

But the evidence is becoming hard to ignore. Smith was a prodigy, playing for Surrey Under 17s at the age of 12, scoring 90 and 104 in an Under 19s Test in Bangladesh in February 2019, and the following month making a century on first-class debut for Surrey in Dubai against an MCC attack including Stuart Broad. In April 2022, he caught the attention of the England hierarchy with an unbeaten 234 against Gloucestershire at Bristol, having arrived at the crease with the scoreboard reading 37 for three.

Still, it is two more recent innings that set tongues wagging. At Galle in February 2023, Smith thrashed a 71-ball hundred, including eight sixes, against Sri Lanka A, the fastest century in the history of England Lions. It earned him a namecheck from Ben Stokes, and praise from Ian Bell, the Lions' batting coach, who purred about his footwork against spin.

Four months later, with Surrey chasing an apparently impossible 501 to beat Kent at Canterbury, Smith supplied the impetus with 114 off 77 deliveries, made from 139 while he was batting. Surrey won an extraordinary game by five wickets.

This season, he is averaging 56 with a strike-rate of 84, including a crushing 155 off 179 balls against Warwickshire. His 11 sixes have been bettered in division one only by Durham's David Bedingham. Given the manner in which Stokes's team are approaching Test cricket, it would be odd if Smith — whose first-class average is just under 41 — were not being discussed.

Does he bat with the Bazball ethos in mind, or does it come naturally? 'It's more an in-the-moment feel about how the game's panning out,' he says. 'In some of those games, I felt the best form of defence was attack.

'The way the England team have played has inspired people to do things they wouldn't have done before. Everyone says you have to score a bit slower in four-day cricket. Actually, you don't. Scoring runs is the most important thing, and how you get there is up to the individual.

'I'd say it comes naturally, and it's exciting. Going out there and not worrying about getting out and looking to score runs has helped my game push forward.'

It was a pity the weather deprived England fans of the chance to see more of Smith during the Ireland series, when his only innings was nine off 10 balls at Trent Bridge.

But it gave him a taste of the big time, and he wants to be an all-format international cricketer — an ambition confirmed by his decision over the winter to appear, with England's blessing, in the ILT20 franchise tournament in the UAE, rather than tour India with the Lions. For now, there is the awkward matter of wishing Foakes success as the Test wicketkeeper while knowing that he is an obstacle to his own ambitions. Of Smith's 56 first-class matches, only 19 have come behind the stumps.

Smith is diplomatic: 'Seeing Ben miss out with England is a bittersweet thing, because you feel for him as a person, but you're glad to have him back (at Surrey), because he makes such a difference.'

Some have even suggested Smith could play for England as a specialist No 3, though that would mean ousting Ollie Pope, another county team-mate and the Test vice-captain.

Either way, director of cricket Rob Key is a big fan, while Gareth Batty, his coach at Surrey, needs little convincing.

'Last year, he made defining contributions at key moments that only senior players do consistently,' says Batty. 'You'll be scribing about that young man a little bit more in the future. It's watch-out time for the people he's going to be playing against.'