Nathan Smith ready to step up after taking scenic route to Tests
New Zealand allrounder primed for debut having worked his way from small town to big stage
Deivarayan Muthu
26-Nov-2024
Nathan Smith could debut alongside one of his heroes, Tim Southee • Getty Images
He imagined himself as Tim Southee when he bowled in backyard cricket, and Kane Williamson or Ross Taylor when he batted. He then watched Matt Henry hurl bouncers at Steven Smith from the grass banks as a spectator at the Hagley Oval in 2016. Eight years on, he is set to step into the Hagley Oval as a Black Cap and share the stage with some of his heroes.
He can get the new ball to hoop around. He can get the old one to reverse-swing and skid off the pitch. He is also a capable batter down the order. Meet 26-year-old allrounder Nathan Smith.
Just two weeks after making his white-ball debut for the Black Caps, in Sri Lanka, Smith will likely feature in his first Test with World Test Championship (WTC) points at stake. He was handed his first NZC central contract in September, even before he had played an international game for New Zealand. Although that owed something to Devon Conway and Finn Allen opting out of contracts, it highlighted the all-format promise that Smith brings and the faith New Zealand's team management have in his skills.
The road to the New Zealand Test side, though, has been a long and twisty one for Smith. Hailing from small-town Oamaru, Smith had made his first-class debut in April 2016 as an 18-year-old and spent his formative years under Rob Walter, currently South Africa's white-ball coach, at Otago before a reshuffle of personnel prompted him to move to Wellington ahead of the 2021-22 domestic season.
Smith immediately impressed in his first Plunket Shield season for Wellington, coming away as the joint-highest wicket-taker. A serious back injury, which needed surgery, then left him on the sidelines next season, but he bounced back spectacularly in 2023-24, his chart-topping 33 wickets central to Wellington's run to the title.
A fitter, stronger Smith is now prepared to withstand the load of international cricket.
"Yeah, I suppose the last couple of years, barring the last six months, the 18 months before that, they were challenging," Smith said recently. "A couple of back stress fractures, it's quite testing times, but I think through that you sort of learn a lot about yourself. It gives you a little bit of perspective as well and it's a hell of a lot better playing than spending a lot of time sitting on the couch watching.
"So, it's nice to have a sort of a prolonged period of playing consistently and I think that's probably why the results are so good, you know, just playing all the time."
"It felt like it was only going to be a matter of time. Nathan's had that taste in white-ball cricket and hopefully he gets an opportunity in Test cricket as well. Because it would be nice to think that Worcester were a very, very small part of his journey towards that."
Smith is certainly quicker than Colin de Grandhomme - he can touch 140kph - and though his batting isn't as explosive as de Grandhomme's yet, he is being talked up as a compelling package. In first-class cricket, Smith has scored 13 fifties and one hundred, while on his ODI debut, in Dambulla, he pulled off a sensational catch at the deep third boundary to dismiss Pathum Nissanka.
"He was batting probably at No. 7 the majority of the games for us and anywhere between No. 7 and No. 9, he did score some really useful runs," Richardson said. "He knows his game well but [is] probably not as powerful as de Grandhomme. For me, all three skillsets - he ticks those boxes with the field as well. Awesome in the field, ultra-athletic, has the impact and has a real wow factor about him."
Smith had a low-key ODI debut in Sri Lanka and facing Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes' Bazballers will present a bigger challenge for him, but Richardson has backed him to cope well.
"I think I've only known Nathan for a small period of time, but he was a very impressive character and very calm," Richardson said. "Knowing Nathan, I'd like to think he'll probably try and shift that mindset around to say that it's going to create opportunities for him and that he'll back his skills and know that if he does it really well, he'll have a chance at any given time that can go one way or the other. It will be quite intimidating because England will look to score at a [high] rate and he knows that.
"So, I'm sure he'll have some things in place, but just watching how he goes about it, you know, he's a very ambitious cricketer. It's something that he put on his radar and speaking to us very early on, he wanted to play international cricket. I don't think he will back down from that."
From small-town Oamaru, Smith is certainly ready for the big stage.
Deivarayan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo