Jamie Smith lives his life by a no regrets policy, dealing with the what ifs it pitches in the same clinical manner as the deliveries he launches beyond the boundary.

Once he has made a decision, Smith sticks with it, instantly at peace with its consequences. It is why just months after becoming England’s Test wicketkeeper, he is prepared to give up his spot during the pre-Christmas tour of New Zealand to be alongside his partner Kate when they become parents.

‘Family is first for me. It’s the most important thing. There’s no doubt that playing for England is amazing, but it's nothing on the other stuff,’ Smith says.

‘If someone came in and did a fantastic job and they go somewhere else with selection, I'm not going to be kicking up a fuss. Being at the birth of my son is not something I want to miss. It will be a memory that I cherish more than any in cricket anyway, so if I lost my place because of it, so be it.’

The timing is at odds with Smith’s as a batsman, the due date falling in the midst of back-to-back Test matches in Wellington and Hamilton, the second and third of the series, between December 6-18. When he travels to New Zealand, if at all, will therefore be decided after the current tour of Pakistan concludes.

This was an unforeseen clash. Such has been Smith’s ascent that he was yet to become England’s 715th Test cricketer when news of the impending arrival was shared with nearest and dearest.

One of those was Surrey team-mate Ben Foakes, the player unceremoniously axed by England in July to accommodate Smith’s selection behind the stumps for series versus West Indies and Sri Lanka.

‘It wasn't an easy position for anyone to be in at that point, I'm very good friends with Ben. We sit next to each other in the dressing room. He's the best wicketkeeper in the world, and I don't think anyone would doubt that,’ Smith says.

‘It was just that they wanted someone for the role that could up the scoring rate, which obviously put a little bit more pressure on me.

‘Sport is so ruthless, and we both know that these things sort of happen. Yeah, it was pretty awkward at first, but he's ultra professional, so it was no surprise that he was very gracious. He's always been very supportive of me in general, and during the Test series, he kept in contact, messaging about how things were going.’

With a strike rate of 74 in his six appearances to date, the 24-year-old has proved a seamless fit for the Test team’s Bazball style. A counter-attacking mentality saw him clear Old Father Time on debut at Lord’s and then hit another ball out of the ground at Edgbaston, where he cruelly fell five runs short of a maiden hundred. 

He rectified that in his very next innings, taking the man-of-the-match award in the series-opening win over the Sri Lankans in Manchester and then thrilling his home Oval crowd with a spree of 51 off 19 deliveries alongside the tail last month.

For some, Smith is simply fulfilling his destiny. Surrey’s outgoing director of cricket Alec Stewart identified him as a future England cricketer - and one having the potential to be the best of the Oval crop - at just 17, but the man himself credits the rallying cry to county cricketers by captain Ben Stokes in early 2023, urging them to replicate his side’s freewheeling approach as the catalyst for it coming to fruition.

Later that January, he went to Sri Lanka and bashed a 71-ball hundred, the fastest ever by an England Lions player. It was not a one-off. Until that point, his County Championship runs had come at a rate of 50 per 100 balls across four full seasons. In his most recent two, it surged to 70.

In between came another of those decisive Smith calls. As part of a plan to become a bigger hitter, he turned down Lions selection for the tour of India to commit to the ILT20 tournament in the UAE instead.

‘I wanted to be playing all forms for England, and for a time for Surrey I was batting at no 9, not really getting much of a go in Twenty20 cricket,’ he explains.

‘It was two-fold for me. Physically, I was really pushing that side of the game. Just looking at the way people struck the ball, the best batters weren't really small guys. They were all really strong, and had added that bit of power, so that even mishits were still going 15 rows back. Mine were landing on the 30-yard circle.

‘And it was a mindset shift of asking myself how I was going to break into the England stuff. It wasn't playing T20 cricket, knocking it around at a strike rate of 120. I saw a gap potentially at no 5, and that's why I batted there for Surrey this year. I didn't see that there were too many middle-order players around the country, around the world even. Everyone likes to bat at the top.

‘So, I just did a lot of weights. It was a new experience for me. Also going to Dubai for that franchise stuff, I found was there was just so much dead time. You’d train in the morning and that would be you, so instead of sitting in a hotel room, looking at four walls or watching Netflix for hours, I’d do a gym session whenever I had a chance.’

Being bulky is in direct contrast to the nimble and lithe characteristics associated with the best wicketkeepers in history, and at 6ft 2ins, some will argue that Smith is too tall for the role.

‘I've not had the experience of being small as a wicketkeeper,’ he counters with a smile.

‘I can see people's argument in terms of bending down all day, because it doesn't give you the best back when you've finished. But it's just a skill-based thing, of catching a ball and influencing a game that way.

‘Some might say, if you're taller, you can reach a bit wider and potentially dive further or jump higher.’

His glove work for England to date has had the pleasing quality of not drawing attention to itself - the wicketkeeper’s watermark - although one area he must improve for the Pakistan series starting in Multan on Monday is his input for DRS. Under Ollie Pope’s temporary captaincy, England had a 0-10 success rate on reviews versus Sri Lanka, albeit with the caveat that some were calculated gambles against set batters late in innings.

Smith’s relaxed temperament - as a youth he was misconstrued as ‘so laid back, he doesn't care’ - aligns with the demeanours of Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum. Unlike the majority of the squad, though, he is not a golfer. ‘I haven’t got time to play two sports that last all day,’ he jokes.

His first love was football. ‘No one in my family played cricket. I was pushed into a holiday camp with my local club, Sutton - something my parents did to keep me busy.’

A precocious talent, he was a central midfielder in Wimbledon’s academy until he was 15, when his progress through Surrey’s age group teams that saw him play for the Under-17 side as a 12-year-old effectively ended his fading dream of becoming a professional footballer.

‘I didn't really want that to be the case, but I knew with my cricket that I had something a little bit special. I wasn't naive. When you're growing up, people push you for a reason. They're putting you in higher teams, because they can see a talent in you,’ he says.

‘It was getting to the point where football and cricket were overlapping too much. Going on pre-season tours with Surrey in March meant missing things. Doing both wasn't sustainable.

‘Walking into a contracts meeting with Wimbledon at the end of the season, knowing how the contracts worked, I was never going to get one. Everyone had their little percentage score for attendance and mine was 56.'

Despite an inauspicious start to his Surrey career in 2018 — he arrived at the crease on debut with the Lord’s scoreboard reading 144 for six, and walked off 19 balls later having contributed half of an unbroken 14-run partnership with Scott Borthwick in one of the more uneventful endings to a 20-over innings, and followed that defeat to Middlesex with a first-ball dismissal against Kent next day - it was undoubtedly the correct career path.

Football these days is another family affair. Despite being raised in Crystal Palace territory, Smith and his dad Lawrence follow West Ham home and away - an influence of his mum Bernie, who hails from the east end of London. He singles out the enigmatic Dimitri Payet, who ‘was far better than what I'd ever seen at West Ham before,’ and Mark Noble ‘because I’m someone drawn to the loyalty and a bit of longevity,’ as his favourite Hammers.

The next time he cheers on the 2024-2025 vintage from the stands, Smith could be a father himself; first a maiden away tour with an England Test team seeking a third straight series victory.

‘In terms of Asia, Pakistan's the last country to tick off for me, and it looks like it will get exceedingly hot, so I have packed some sun cream and a nice floppy hat,’ he says.

‘It's going to be a tough tour. Pakistan are going to be a strong side, even though recent results might say differently. People I’ve spoken to say they always turn up when you least expect them to.’

Whatever happens, and even if he misses the entire New Zealand trip, it is safe to assume his first overseas assignment with England will not be his last.