How's Smith as a keeper?

[Mad Hamish]

He seems to be doing pretty well with the bat so far, but how does his
keeping look?

[John Hall]

Post by Mad Hamish
He seems to be doing pretty well with the bat so far, but how does his
keeping look?

He's been tidy and unobtrusive, which is a good sign. He did miss a
stumping on day one, but that's the first chance I can recall him not
taking in the three-and-a-bit Tests he's played so far. He's not as good
as Foakes, but he's probably better than Bairstow has been since his
broken leg and maybe even before that.

[miked]

Post by John Hall

Post by Mad Hamish
He seems to be doing pretty well with the bat so far, but how does his
keeping look?

He's been tidy and unobtrusive, which is a good sign. He did miss a
stumping on day one, but that's the first chance I can recall him not
taking in the three-and-a-bit Tests he's played so far. He's not as good
as Foakes, but he's probably better than Bairstow has been since his
broken leg and maybe even before that.

yes indeed. Like Bairstow and Buttler before him hes not so good
standing up to the spinners, well bashir in this test so far, quite
often fails to gather the ball cleanly, plus eagle eyed ump Wilson
spotted that his big black gloves were marginally in front of the stumps
and awarded a no ball, something i've never seen before. It was actually
a referral, didnt affect the decision, but had it been out and then no
balled, well rather careless. He was well back after that. But at 6'2 he
must be 1 of the tallest or the tallest england keeper. But increasingly
this summer england have relied on him to bat them out of trouble. I'm
not so sure that Foakes would have done that had he kept the gloves.

mike

[John Hall]

Post by miked

Post by John Hall

Post by Mad Hamish
He seems to be doing pretty well with the bat so far, but how does his
keeping look?

He's been tidy and unobtrusive, which is a good sign. He did miss a
stumping on day one, but that's the first chance I can recall him not
taking in the three-and-a-bit Tests he's played so far. He's not as good
as Foakes, but he's probably better than Bairstow has been since his
broken leg and maybe even before that.

yes indeed. Like Bairstow and Buttler before him hes not so good
standing up to the spinners,

He probably hasn't had enough practice doing that yet.

Post by miked
well bashir in this test so far, quite
often fails to gather the ball cleanly, plus eagle eyed ump Wilson
spotted that his big black gloves were marginally in front of the stumps
and awarded a no ball, something i've never seen before. It was actually
a referral, didnt affect the decision, but had it been out and then no
balled, well rather careless.

Apparently he's admitted that he didn't know the Law. Players often seem
to be surprisingly ignorant of the Laws, until they retire and become
umpires, before which hopefully they bone up on them!

Post by miked
He was well back after that. But at 6'2 he
must be 1 of the tallest or the tallest england keeper. But increasingly
this summer england have relied on him to bat them out of trouble. I'm
not so sure that Foakes would have done that had he kept the gloves.
mike

No. Apparently one concern that England had with Foakes is that he
wasn't able to accelerate when left with the tail and the state of the
game called for it.

Smith's batting is so good, that ideally he should play as a specialist
batsman at four or five and give the gloves to someone else, but it
doesn't look like there will be a vacancy until Root retires, which
hopefully is still a good few years away.