England have one month until they begin their first Test of the summer against New Zealand at Lord’s. If they stick to their Bazball guns, Jamie Smith should walk out to open the batting, writes Katya Witney.
By now it’s likely safe to assume that Zak Crawley has lost his spot as an England opener. After years of backing against the numbers, Crawley’s scores in the opening month of the County Championship have dipped him beyond reasonable selection. So far in Division Two, he has a high score of 44 from eight innings, with an average of 22.12.
Crawley has only missed three Test matches since Brendon McCullum took over as England head coach, with injury ruling him out of the home series against Sri Lanka in 2024. How England replaced him for those Test matches showed McCullum’s selection policy at its clearest. Dan Lawrence, who had been England’s spare batter on a number of tours previously, was slotted in to open. Lawrence had batted at every position from Nos.3-7 for England before moving up to open against Sri Lanka, and batted in the middle order for Surrey and his former county home Essex.
In promoting Lawrence, England picked what they believed were the best six batters available to them in the country at that time. Following that same selection policy in 2026, they could land on a similar solution to their gap at the top of the order.
After a poor Ashes, Jamie Smith has shored up his spot as one of England’s lineup later in the summer with a prolific start to the Championship. Two centuries and an 89 pushed him past 400 runs by the end of April. Sitting just behind him in the run-scoring charts is James Rew. Rew has been hovering in and around England’s designated spare batter position for the last year. He was called up to their squad for the Zimbabwe Test last year after Jordan Cox got injured, and was on the Lions tour to Australia over the winter. Now, with Cox not playing in the Championship or the IPL, and Rew’s prolific scoring rate showing little sign of slowing down, it’s becoming harder for England not to pick him.
Yet, it’s hard to fit him in with Smith in possession of the wicketkeeping spot. Smith had a poor series with the gloves in Australia but there’s little difference between him and Rew behind the stumps. Selecting purely on wanting a keeper who can bat with the tail, Smith would get the nod over Rew, who is less dynamic down the order than Smith. However, on picking the best six batters currently available to them, any selection panel would be hard pressed not to include Rew, alongside the set middle order of Bethell, Root, Brook and Stokes.
One solution would be to have Rew open the batting with Ben Duckett. In theory, this could suit Rew. Somerset head coach Jason Kerr said that Rew could “absolutely” open the batting for England, and that promoting him to open for Somerset before that selection is made was a consideration.
The other solution would be to open with Smith and give Rew the gloves lower down. While Smith has had his greatest successes with England while batting at Nos.6 and 7 – like his 184* against India and maiden Test hundred against Sri Lanka – in a toss up between Smith and Rew to open, the more typically Bazball move would be to plump for Smith. All the reasons England like Smith with the tail stand up as arguments for him to open. He’s a tall right-hander, providing the same awkward match-up combo as the Crawley-Duckett opening partnership, and capable of providing the same kind of vigor at the start of the innings McCullum covets. Equally, Smith batted at No.3 in the first three Championship rounds for Surrey, only keeping wicket when Ben Foakes got injured. He has also opened for England in both white-ball formats.
Rew could also conceivably come in above Ben Stokes, whose declining returns with the bat over the last couple of years might suit a move down to seven. That would leave Rew at six and Stokes batting with the tail. Thus, on fashioning an order out of the best six batters in the country, it’s conceivable how Smith could end up being the best placed to open at Lord’s next month.
However, perhaps both the lessons of the winter and those from Lawrence’s promotion – he hasn’t been named in an England squad since – might prompt a different method. When Crawley was injured for the Sri Lanka series, a stop-gap was required rather than a long-term replacement. Crawley was inked in to come back after his finger had healed, meaning whoever came into that spot would likely not have been a serious contender for selection over Crawley. This time, England need a replacement who could stay the course. And, they have options with opening pedigree.
Emilio Gay scored his third century of the season over the weekend. There are the caveats of Durham being in Division Two and Gay batting at three, but he has previous as an opener, and of scoring runs in the top flight. He also had success for the Lions over the winter. Speaking after the Ashes post-mortem, Rob Key stated the importance of working with the counties on selection, with the promise for the new national selector, when appointed, to lead a county insights group to provide insight on selecting players from the county game.
Nevertheless, while those were promising signs for early season run-scorers, Key was also clear that he is not looking for a change of philosophy from McCullum despite the Ashes shellacking. An honest reflection of that, could see Smith as McCullum’s stand-out pick as England’s new Test opener.
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