Will Smeed has set his sights on establishing himself in red-ball cricket after discovering a taste for the longer format during his first-class debut season with Somerset.
First-class debut and early impact
The big-hitting 24-year-old burst onto the scene in 2022 by becoming the first player to smash a century in The Hundred, while his 94 off 58 balls guided Somerset to glory in the final of the 2025 Vitality Blast. But it was only in April this year that he made his first-class debut when he was an injury substitute for Tom Kohler-Cadmore in Somerset’s County Championship match against Essex.
He went on to appear in three more matches in the four-day format in the early part of the season, batting in the middle order, and Smeed now has the taste for more, having chosen to devote himself to white-ball cricket earlier in his career.
Ambition and learnings
He said: “I’d love to try and break into the team and establish a position in it. That’s my goal now. I loved playing those four games and it’s given me the desire to try and get back in the team and play a few more.
“I’ve got a few work-ons now through the winter to try and improve because the only red-ball cricket I’d played before was second team stuff, and the jump from second-team cricket to first-team cricket feels like a completely different game.
“It’s hard to know what you need to work on until you’ve been exposed to it and fortunately, I got that opportunity at the start of the season, so I can now take a few learnings from that. Hopefully, that stands me in good stead to try and put in some consistent performances when, hopefully, I get another opportunity.”
Recent performances and The Hundred struggles
Despite a hand injury forcing him to miss part of Somerset’s Vitality Blast title defence, Smeed helped his county reach a sixth consecutive Finals Day before they were defeated in the semi-finals by eventual winners Northants.
However, it has been a poor year in The Hundred for Birmingham Phoenix as six consecutive defeats following an opening win over Trent Rockets meant they finished bottom.
Smeed said: “We’re all disappointed with how it’s gone. With the talent in the group, and everything available to us, we’ve underperformed massively.
“That’s part of the game, it does happen, but it doesn’t make it any easier to deal with that and there are going to be some hard reflections and learnings, and hopefully we’ll come back stronger next year.”
Supporting community cricket
Smeed was speaking in support of KP Snacks' Everyone In Fund, which backs the ECB's Cricket Cities programme to remove barriers and create opportunities for participation.
A community cricket session for local women and girls in Aston, Birmingham, celebrated the launch of the fund, which is a £750,000 investment over three years that will support community-led projects across England and Wales that will aim to remove barriers such as cost, access to facilities and confidence.
The goal of the programme is to create more opportunities for people in urban communities to get active through cricket.
Smeed said: “It’s been great fun. I always enjoy doing things like this and it’s great to see people out there just having fun.
“Projects like this can only be a good thing. Sport is a great way of bringing people together, it’s good for your physical health and mental health, so the more opportunities available for people to get involved with stuff like this the better.
“Everyone knows cricket can be quite a tough game to get involved in from a financial point of view, so initiatives like this are a great way of opening it up and be available to more people.”
KP Snacks, Official Partner of The Hundred, have launched the Everyone In Fund, in support of the ECB’s Cricket Cities programme. To find out more, visit everyonein.co.uk
