Jamie Smith was named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year for 2024. Matt Roller’s piece on Smith originally appeared in the 2025 edition of Wisden Cricketer’s Almanack.
The Five Cricketers of the Year represent a tradition that dates back to 1889, making this the oldest individual award in cricket. The Five are picked by the editor, and the selection is based, primarily but not exclusively, on excellence in and/or influence on the previous English season. No one can be chosen more than once.
English cricket spent a decade arguing with itself about the most important quality for a Test-match wicketkeeper. The middle-order runs offered by Jonny Bairstow? The slick glovework of Ben Foakes? Or the counter-attacking potential of Jos Buttler? In 2024, an alternative emerged who seemed to possess a tantalising cocktail of all three. When Bairstow – by then a middle-order specialist – and Foakes made way after England’s 4-1 defeat in India, Surrey’s Jamie Smith was the beneficiary; Rob Key, the team director, labelled him “a rare talent” who could bat in any situation. Smith started the summer as his county’s second-choice wicketkeeper, behind Foakes, but ended it as England’s undisputed first-choice: he played all six home Tests, his temperament as impressive as his talent.
“I felt really ready for it,” he says of his debut, against West Indies at Lord’s, which finished inside seven sessions. “When you look back, it seems a blur.” Smith was presented with his cap by the retiring James Anderson, and held the catch that gave him his 704th and final Test wicket on the third morning – Smith’s 24th birthday. But it was his maiden innings that had caught the eye: last out for a stylish 70, shortly after hitting Jayden Seales into St John’s Wood Road.
He hit an even bigger six two weeks later, clearing a raucous Hollies Stand early in a rescue-act 95 in the third Test at Edgbaston. After coming in with England 169 for six, still 113 behind, Smith demonstrated the adaptability that had earned him his call-up, adding 106 in 21 overs with Chris Woakes. He fell just short of a maiden hundred, bowled by a grubber from Shamar Joseph, but he did not have to wait long. Promoted to No.6 against Sri Lanka in Manchester because Ben Stokes was injured, Smith brushed off his first mistake with the gloves – a missed stumping – to become the youngest England wicketkeeper to score a Test century. After walking out on the second day at a wobbly 125 for four in response to 236, he got there with a flick off the pads early on the third.
At the other end, his Surrey team-mate Gus Atkinson was the first of many to congratulate him. “It’s the messages you receive from family, friends and people you’ve not heard from for years,” Smith says. “How much it means to other people really puts it into perspective… Whatever happens now, I can say I scored a hundred for England.” His fourth-innings 39 proved invaluable too, changing the tempo of an awkward chase to help Joe Root clinch a five-wicket win. After a quiet return to Lord’s, he belted 67 off 50 balls during a frenetic second innings at The Oval, seizing his chance to accelerate with the tail. It further underlined his ability to read situations, just as England had hoped.
JAMIE LUKE SMITH was born in Epsom on July 12, 2000, though not into a cricketing family. His parents, Lawrence and Bernadette, dropped him off at a summer camp at Sutton CC because they “just wanted me out of the house”, but he quickly fell in love with the game. Though too young to remember the 2005 Ashes, he would watch the “Greatest Series” DVD box set on repeat. His first bat was a Woodworm Torch, as used by Kevin Pietersen.
An avid West Ham fan, Smith was a promising central midfielder who dreamed of turning professional, but he had switched his focus to cricket by the time AFC Wimbledon released him at 15. He has two brothers, both much older: “It was mainly me playing on my own in the garden, shooting into a goal for two hours every afternoon.” He was involved in Surrey’s age-group system from Under-9, and won a sports scholarship to Whitgift School in Croydon. “The facilities were second to none,” he says. He made his first-team debut in a T20 at Lord’s a week before his 18th birthday, and a year later hit 127 in his maiden first-class innings, in Dubai, against an MCC side captained by Stuart Broad: “There might have been a few choice words, with some of the shots being played.” By 21, he had four Championship centuries – including an unbeaten 234 – and captained Surrey in the One-Day Cup, still among his proudest achievements.
It came as a surprise to Smith when he was picked by England Lions in early 2023, after spending the season in and out of the Surrey side, but he seized the opportunity. Watched by Key, he hit a 71-ball century in Galle, and was soon namechecked by Stokes as a Test-player-in-waiting. “It felt like a breakthrough moment; a realisation of where my game could get to. It was a catalyst for a change in mindset, to be more confident in my ability.” Smith batted at No.4 in Surrey’s Championship win that summer, and made a low-key international debut in an ODI against Ireland. Though tall for a wicketkeeper at 6ft 2in, he identified the need to add power to his game over the winter, and agreed with England’s management he would head to the ILT20 in the UAE rather than tour India with the Lions. He used his first overseas franchise gig to bulk up.
A strong start to the 2024 season convinced England the time was right, and he celebrated his call-up with a century against title rivals Essex at The Oval. He spent the rest of the summer following Surrey’s scores from afar: “It’s gone under the radar how good an achievement it is to win three Championships in a row. People go, ‘It’s Surrey, they should win.’ But it’s really not that easy.” With 677 runs at 56, Smith topped the club averages. He missed the run-in to play the ODI series against Australia, with a two-year central contract confirming his all-format potential.
His first Test tour challenged his glovework: the low bounce in Pakistan demanded he stood “as close as I have since Under-11s”, and his drop of Agha Salman in the second Test was particularly costly. But he recovered to hit a counter-attacking 89 in the decider at Rawalpindi, which included six of his 15 sixes in 2024 – second only to his hero Pietersen for an England batter in their first year as a Test cricketer. And it all left him feeling secure enough to miss the tour of New Zealand, to be with his partner, Kate, at the birth of their first child. It was, he says, “the perfect way to end 2024”.
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