England wicketkeeper Jamie Smith and Australia batsman Steve Smith during the third day of the fifth test in the 2025/26 Ashes series between Australia and England at the Sydney Cricket Ground on January 6, 2026 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo/Getty Images) England wicketkeeper-batsman Jamie Smith has said that skipping IPL 2026 could help him focus on red-ball cricket as he prepares for the upcoming Test season at home.Smith, who went unsold in the IPL auction, said he initially wanted to be part of the league but now sees the break as useful ahead of England’s Test summer, which begins against New Zealand in June.
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IPL 2026 should be an audition for India’s next T20I captain “I would definitely like to go (to the IPL) at that time. It’s my ambition to strengthen all sides of my game and I see the IPL as something that can really improve the white ball side and have benefits for the red ball (game),” Smith said.“But in hindsight, yes, it’s fantastic to come here and have a block of red ball (cricket) behind me. I felt at the end of the summer and into the winter, technically speaking, I felt a bit out of sorts.“It’s been nice to come here (The Oval) and work on a few things and then hopefully I’ll be able to implement them for six or seven games (County Championship) and see where we go if there’s any England stuff after that. But yeah, it’s nice to have a little block to try and get things right,” Smith said on Wednesday, according to ESPNCricinfo.Smith had a difficult Ashes series in Australia, scoring 211 runs with one half-century in five Tests as Australia won 4–1. He was later left out of England’s white-ball squads for the tour of Sri Lanka and the Men’s T20 World Cup.Reflecting on the tour, Smith spoke of the physical and mental demands of long Test series.“Mistakes will happen. The India series was very demanding physically and mentally. It was my first five-Test series.”“Also, we were on the field for 22 out of 25 days or something stupid and all the tests were (five days). It was just a real drain at the end: I was just physically and mentally shaken by everything that went on. I learned from there how to make sure from the first game to the last your standards are still as high as possible,” Smith said.“It was similar in Australia to be honest. I know a few games didn’t last as long as people expected or wanted, but again I don’t feel my standards have dropped too much,” he added.
