England wicketkeeper Jamie Smith welcomed his return to form with the bat as he top-scored with 61 on day one of the second Test against Pakistan at Lord's. Smith's spot in the side had been called into question at the start of the summer following a barren run of one half century in his prior 14 Test innings, where he was dismissed for single figures on seven occasions. He scored 60 in his final innings of the series defeat to New Zealand, but was back under pressure after a poor dismissal to a top-edged pull in the first Test against Pakistan at Headingley.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player "I have found it tough," Smith told Sky Sports Cricket as England closed day one at Lord's on 248-9 in their first innings. "It has been a lean period for me with some indifferent scores so I was trying to ride the wave a little bit. "It is not the most free-scoring at times here [Lord's] - you can feel a bit out of rhythm but then catch up.
"I felt I scratched around at the start but once I found the middle of the bat, it was sightly different to how I usually play, which is almost at top tempo to start with. That seemed to help today." Smith added: "Over the winter I had a bit of an issue with my front foot crossing over and it helped going back to Surrey at the start of the season and playing a block of red-ball cricket to rectify that. "I felt I had good success doing that, batting up the order at number three, exposed to a newer, harder ball.
I then altered that rhythm in the Test stuff batting at seven. "I was trying to take a bit more time at Headingley last week, when on reflection I should probably have been a bit more aggressive from the start." Smith's typical aggression with the bat was oft criticised during England's dismal 4-1 Ashes defeat over the winter in which he averaged just 23.44. His first innings dismissal to part-timer Marnus Labuschagne in the final Test in Sydney was labelled 'witless' at the time, this a player who had taken to Test cricket like a dream in his first 12 Tests, averaging 58.64, until his form began to sour from midway through last summer.
"When he first came in, everything seemed to come to him easily, he played brilliantly," Sky Sports Cricket's Nasser Hussain said. "On the back of some low scores, and some poor shots, suddenly the spotlight has been on him... and it's how you react to that. "I remember when he was playing really well, I admired the way he'd taken to Test cricket, his calmness - he seemed to have a low heart beat and things didn't seem to faze him.
"But then all of the things we were applauding him for, he then got hit by when it wasn't going so well. When he wasn't getting runs, his body language was being questioned - 'is he up for the battle?' "For Jamie Smith, the fire is burning within. You don't have to always show it on the outside like I did or whatever." Watch day two of England's second Test match against Pakistan at Lord's live on Sky Sports Cricket from 10.15pm on Friday.
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