Smith's a keeper, as epic innings goes where England predecessors could not

Jamie Smith is the Test wicketkeeper that England always hoped Jos Buttler would become but never did. As Smith muscled a slog-sweep away for four to reach an 80-ball century, he equalled Buttler's tally of two Test hundreds in 81 fewer innings; when Smith knocked Washington Sundar down to long-off, he went past Buttler's highest score of 152.

Smith has successfully harnessed the "f*** it" mindset that Buttler could never quite coax himself into during his 57-Test career, despite the prompt scrawled on his bat handle. Where Buttler seemed paralysed by indecision when faced with Test cricket's blank canvas, Smith appears only to see upside: he walked in on Friday to face a fired-up Mohammed Siraj, and crunched a hat-trick ball through mid-off for four.

Buttler is England's greatest-ever hitter of a white ball but his Test average of 31.94 - and more pertinently, his strike rate of 54.18 - reflects an unfulfilled talent against the red one. But a week before his 25th birthday, Smith is the future of England's batting across formats: a destructive white-ball opener and counter-attacking Test No. 7, while keeping wicket to boot.

His innings at Edgbaston was devastating, and seemed to scramble Shubman Gill's mind in spite of India's huge run-cushion. England often talk about identifying moments to absorb pressure, or to put it back onto their opponents: Smith seized his chance to do the latter, ransacking cheap runs against India's change bowlers.

At Headingley last week, Smith's first-innings dismissal seemed anathema to traditional cricketing logic, pulling Prasidh Krishna to deep square leg three balls before a new ball was due. But he insisted that it was a "calculated" play with designs on "taking all the momentum into the new ball", and a failure of execution rather than planning.

He responded by doubling down on his attacking instincts, crunching Ravindra Jadeja for 18 runs in an over to get them across the line in their fifth-day run case, including the winning hit over mid-on for six. At Edgbaston, he assessed a hopeless situation - England 503 behind with five wickets in hand - and determined that there was little point in hanging around.

Gill laid the bait for Smith with another short-ball ploy, setting a six-three leg-side field with three men out on the hook. Smith responded by showing off his repertoire of pull shots: a hard, flat slap behind square; a full-blooded hoist into the stands; a wrist-roll through midwicket; and a flat-bat through mid-on as he jumped leg-side. Prasidh's over cost him 23 runs.

Smith was empowered to keep on attacking, threading the gap between short cover and mid-off to hit Sundar's first two balls for four. When Gill fell into the familiar trap of spreading his field - with five boundary-riders for Sundar - Smith reverted to simply milking singles, rotating strike at will in his mammoth stand with Harry Brook.

By the time he reached his hundred - England's equal third-fastest in Tests, after a slight slowdown left Gilbert Jessop's record safe - Smith had only faced 26 balls from India's two most threatening bowlers: 12 from Siraj, and 14 from Akash Deep. Gill ought to have brought them back sooner, but Smith showed his game awareness by targeting the weaker links in a struggling attack.

His partnership with Brook, worth 303, was a glimpse at the future of England's batting line-up - not only in Tests, but across formats. Perhaps the most impressive aspect was their ability to change gears: after racing along in sixth before lunch, they slipped down into fourth in the middle session when India's plans changed, as though cruising along in the middle lane.

Since bulking up significantly 18 months ago, Smith has become an imposing presence at the crease. When he reached 174, he surpassed his Surrey mentor Alec Stewart to register the highest score by an England Test wicketkeeper: it could be some time before anyone else has the opportunity to beat Smith's record.

A lower-order collapse - England's Nos. 8-11 contributed five runs between them - denied Smith the chance to accelerate towards a double-hundred. He reached 184, his final score, with two straight blows off Akash: the first, a crunched straight six, suggested a lucrative IPL contract is waiting for him; the second, a rasping four through mid-off, nearly took the bowler's head off.

Smith's missed stumping off Rishabh Pant last week was a reminder that his keeping is not yet perfect, and in time England may well be tempted to pick him as a specialist batter. But there should be no immediate urge to change his role: Smith was fit enough to bat for five hours after 151 overs behind the stumps at Edgbaston, and showed the value of having a genuine game-changer down at No. 7.

England spent the decade after Matt Prior's retirement shuffling between wicketkeepers: Buttler, Jonny Bairstow and Ben Foakes all had their advocates, but none ever quite managed to make the role their own. The same charge cannot be levelled at Smith, who has made himself an automatic selection within a dozen Tests.

Smith's favourite player was Kevin Pietersen growing up, and there were shades of his idol in Birmingham: dominance against the short ball, disdain against spinners, and the innate self-assurance required to bat with such fearlessness. Whisper it, but England believe that Smith can be even better than his predecessors: this was an innings from the Adam Gilchrist playbook.