How Jamie Smith’s ‘dumb’ dismissal epitomises England’s brutal Ashes failure

While Joe Root’s century was all class, Smith’s inexplicable shot summed up another day where England were on the wrong side of the moments in this Ashes series, amid an impressive Australia fightback

Well, at least yesterday was nice.

The reason Test cricket is so hard, and sees so few upsets, is because good things happen slowly, but bad things happen quickly. To stay in the contest across five days is to walk along a cliff edge. It’s stable, but one slip and it’s over. And England love tying their shoelaces together.

Even when it’s been good for England this series, it’s been bad. Their inability to put consecutive sessions of cricket together has been fatal, with Ben Stokes highlighting as much ahead of the Sydney Test: the consistent quality of the Australian seamers has been the most tangible difference between the two sides.

Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne celebrates the key dismissal of Jamie Smith on day two (Getty Images)

“One thing you take away from the Australia team is their amazing execution with the ball,” Stokes said. “You can look at the way they’ve gone about it and go, ‘yeah, there’s a big difference.’”

Australia scored at 4.85 runs an over today. Matthew Potts, in for his first match of the series, conceded 58 runs from seven overs in a tortured outing. Brydon Carse, a man only ever three balls away from being cut, was being cut. Josh Tongue, who goes at four runs an over, went at four runs an over, before recovering late in the day.

The result was that it was once again Stokes who had to hold the whole thing together. Two wickets to his name, and an economy rate starting with a three.

Australia did not attack. This was not Bazball or ultra-aggressive cricket, but bad balls being put away. The chronic disappointment of this series is the idea that England have failed to turn up. But when does your exception start being your rule? At some point, you stop doing badly, and start being bad.

England’s biggest problem ahead is to jolt themselves away from the idea that this is their mean and this is their standard. The numbers have been brutal. With no specialist spinner in the team for the entirety of the series, England’s pace attack has been brutalised throughout.

As things stand, this series is in the running to be England’s most expensive with the ball in history. Carse has been the most expensive specialist bowler on either side, conceding his runs at 4.69 runs an over. The compliment most often paid his way is that no matter what the circumstance is, he keeps running in. And that rather has been the problem.

England’s bowlers toiled as Australia ended day two on 166-2, trailing the visitors by 218 (Getty Images)

The frustration is that this is so clearly a mile off from the level these players are capable of. We have seen Carse be excellent in an England shirt on multiple occasions. As recently as last week he produced a match-altering spell in Melbourne that put England on the path to victory.

When he arrived in the team in Pakistan in 2024, it was his relentless length and ability to take wickets, whatever the scenario, that earned him praise and such favour within the set-up. And to his credit, the wickets column for Carse, no matter the situation, does keep ticking over. He is England’s leading wicket taker this series with 19.

But between him and Potts, England’s new-ball pair had figures of 16-1-101-0 at the end of the day. With the bat, they scored one run apiece. It was as difficult a day as they come.

It takes a lot to dim the lights, on a day that also included a Joe Root 160 and a Jamie Smith dismissal, that will go down in history.

Joe Root was all class as he scored his second century of the series (Getty Images)

But in the theme of the series, for every good thing that happened for England, two bad would have to follow. Root was all class, for those of you at home who slept through it. Close your eyes, and it looked like that. Touches down to deep third and fluid trigger movements with lovely drives coming back through the ball.

Root has deservedly killed any caveats that doubted his all-round status as a great of the game this series. Two tons in the series, today was the 41st century of his career, drawing him level with Ricky Ponting. Only Jacques Kallis and Sachin Tendulkar remain ahead of him.

He had taken England to 375 for six today. And that was good. But then the final four wickets fell for nine runs. And that was bad. Harry Brook had started overnight on 78, but only added five more before edging loosely to slip.

On another day it’d require further examination, but instead, the award for individual ‘bad thing of the day’ went to Jamie Smith. He was caught by Scott Boland off the bowling of Marnus Labuschagne for 46, for those of you who slept through it. Close your eyes, you’re not even close.

Smith couldn’t resist taking on a bouncer from part-time spinner Labuschagne (Getty Images)

Ten minutes to lunch, and with the field spread, Australia played the joker card. They asked the part-time spinner to bowl some freelance seam, and see what these lunatics will do. Smith took the bait, backed away to a bouncer, slashed, and was caught in the deep. Justin Langer called it “one of the dumbest shots you’ll ever see in Test cricket.” The best-case scenario for Smith was scoring six runs. England were trying to get 500.

Since his century against India at Edgbaston in July, Smith has averaged 20.23 in his 14 innings since. The dip for one of England’s most highly rated talents has become a trough. He had already survived after being caught at cover only for it to be a no-ball, and then from the following delivery edged to Beau Webster at slip, only for Webster to suffer from a momentary bout of blindness and not move as the ball passed dangerously close to his face. The whole thing was utterly bizarre.

On a day of moments, England were on the wrong side of all of them: again. For now, it is still their exception. It cannot become their rule.