Courtesy: England cricket
England have confirmed that they have promoted wicketkeeper batter Jamie Smith to opening slot in the batting order for the upcoming three-match ODI series against West Indies, starting on Thursday, May 29. The 24-year-old will open the batting for England alongside highly accomplished Ben Duckett in the first ODI of the series at Edgbaston in Birmingham despite never doing the same job in List A cricket.
After making his ODI debut against Pakistan in September, 2023, Jamie Smith has played 10 matches for England in the format, scoring 157 runs in nine innings at an average of 17.44 and a strike-rate of 91.27 with no fifties or hundreds under his belt. During the recently concluded ICC Champions Trophy 2025, which was won by India, Jamie Smith batted at number three position for England without any success.
Jamie Smith got the technique to be able to face the swinging ball: Harry Brook
Harry Brook, the new ODI captain of England, spoke about the circumstances that led to the recent development, stating that he and head coach Brendon McCullum feel that Jamie Smith will do impressively as an opener in ODI cricket. He was quoted as saying, as per BBC Sport, “He's got the strength to do so - the technique to be able to face the swinging ball. As we've seen in Test cricket, he's a very good player. He can put their best balls under pressure from any position.”
Will Jacks and Jacob Bethell, who have made their return from India after participating in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, are known to open in white-ball cricket, but Jamie Smith has been preferred over them by the England team management.
Below is the England playing XI to take West Indies in first ODI:
Jamie Smith, Ben Duckett, Joe Root, Harry Brook (c), Jos Buttler (wk), Jacob Bethell, Will Jacks, Jamie Overton, Brydon Carse, Saqib Mahmood, Adil Rashid
