Surrey County Cricket Club are offering young fans the opportunity to have their work published on the Club website, learn more about working in cricket media, and interview a player. Drew Murphy won the first 16-21 age-group category for his piece on an emerging Surrey star.
Born in Epsom in 2000, Smith has been with Surrey since the age of nine and he has risen through the ranks to become a key feature in all formats. His Surrey debut was in a fierce London derby, a T20 against Middlesex at Lord’s. The composure he showed that day has remained constant throughout his immense rise.
If that debut was not dramatic enough, Smith’s first-class debut for Surrey came in March 2019, aged just 18 against the MCC in Dubai. Smith followed up an impressive performance behind the stumps with an outstanding 127. He became only the ninth Surrey player to score a century on his first-class debut.
Since then, Smith has averaged 41 in 29 first-class matches, including five centuries. He is also averaging a remarkable 42.5 in 15 List-A games. These incredible stats and his professionalism and leadership qualities earned the 21-year-old the chance to captain Surrey in the Royal London Cup last year and he led the side to the semi-finals. Smith is a natural leader and has captained for many years growing up in Surrey’s academy.
In Surrey’s last first-class match of the season in 2021, Smith achieved his then highest score of 138. Of course, critics will argue that it was on a very lifeless pitch; however, that does not mean that the runs are a given. Despite the conditions, spending four-and-a-half hours at the crease was an excellent knock from Smith, who opened the batting that day. Spending valuable time at the crease is what many cricket pundits have argued English batters are not achieving. Thus, it is affecting the Test game. Well, Smith showed he could remain at the crease and thus gained valuable experience out in the middle and earned a well-deserved century.
Smith batted excellently for Surrey across all formats, scoring more runs than anyone else wearing the three feathers. At the end of season awards, Smith was rewarded with five prizes. This included Kia YPOTY, Supporter’s Club YPOTY, Members’ POTY, Supporter’s Club POTY, and Players’ POTY. However, his achievements did not stop there, as his impressive season earned him a call-up to join Ben Foakes on the England Lions tour of Australia at the beginning of December 2021.
Smith was looking in good touch ahead of the new County Championship season. He and everyone involved with Surrey will be hoping for another great year for the young batter.
