Will Smeed: Birmingham Phoenix cricket star scores first Hundred 2022 century - career highlights and school

The Cambridge born Somerset cricketer Will Smeed has recently became the 2022 Hundred’s first centurion.

The 20-year-old is currently playing for Birmingham Phoenix and smashed a phenomenal century for Liam Livingstone’s side as he paved the way for a 53 run win over the Southern Brave.

Smeed was joined at the crease by Chris Benjamin, Moeen Ali, Livingstone, Matthew Wade and Miles Hammand but it was the 20-year-old who scored the runs for the West Midlands side.

Southern Brave were reduced to just 123 before they found themselves all out. Henry Brookes caused most of the damage taking five wickets for just 25 runs while Kane Richardson took three for 19 runs.

However, it was Smeed who stole the show at Edgbaston as he swatted his 101 in just 50 balls with eight fours and six sixes.

So who is The Hundred’s newest star?

Who is Will Smeed?

Smeed was born in Cambridge in 2001 and attended Millfield Prep School and King’s College Taunton where he played rugby, football, hockey as well as competing in the hurdles.

He first started playing for Somerset in 2020 during a T20 match against Worcestershire. Smeed then went on to make his List A debut on 14 July 2022 for the England Lions during South Africa’s tour of England.

In just his second professional game, when he was only 18 years old, Smeed hit 82 off 49 balls during a 2020 Vitality Blast against Gloucestershire.

Smeed has consistently been marked as one to watch throughout his days at the county’s academy. Both he and Marcus Trescothick scored hundreds int he same 2nd XI innings when Smeed was only 16.

The 20-year-old earned himself a spot in Birmingham Phoenix’s side as an injury replacement last year and hit 36 off 13 balls on debut, finishing with a strike rate of 172.91.

His T20 career has seen him score 1400 runs at an average of 31.81 and strike rate of 146.29.

What has been said about Will Smeed?

The former white-ball captain of England, Eoin Morgan, believes Smeed’s century could be a turning point with the 20-year-old potentially becoming the standard-bearer for a new breed of cricketers who chose to focus on just one format of the game.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Morgan said: “It’s a line in the sand for English cricket. He doesn’t play any first-class cricket, he is predominantly a T20 cricketer and is clearly excemptional in what he does.

“We’ve seen in other competitions around the world where domestic franchise tournaments which attract big-name players create domestic heroes. Tonight Will Smeed has become one of them.”

Smeed was asked by Sky Sports whether he believed his innings could be the launch pad for his career to which he humbly replied: “I don’t know. Cricket can be a strange game. It was nice to get the extra few runs as I have been stuck short a few times.

“It’s a learning lesson that you don’t have to hit every ball out of the middle of the bat. And hopefully the the more I play the more I can learn and improve.

“That was a great team performance. Shout out to Brookesey his spell was epic and I feel like I have stolen this (Match Hero award) off him a bit. But there will be confidence in the group again and hopefully we can go on a bit of a roll now.”

How to watch The Hundred 2022?

The Hundred continues with the Oval Invincibles and Northern Superchargers today which can be watched on Sky Sports.

Main Event and Sky Sports Cricket will both be used with subscriptions for Sky costing around £46/month. NowTV offer daily passes for £11.99/day.