Smith spent time in the system at AFC Wimbledon but as he got a little older, a Saturday routine developed. After his session with Homes, he would do a Parkrun with his two brothers, then go to watch West Ham, the club he and his father were fanatical about.

“West Ham… that is his only downside, but I can’t hold it against him because his dad was too, so he was brainwashed from a young age,” reflects Neil Stewart, son of Micky, brother of Alec, and fan of Chelsea. Stewart is also a coach in the Surrey academy, who first became aware of Smith aged nine, and first worked with him when he was 12. Smith had played for Surrey Under-14s in June 2010, aged nine.

“He wasn’t a big lad. In fact he was small for his age,” says Stewart. “But he was a magic timer of a ball, a great judge of length, who made big scores from a young age.”

Like Joe Root, being smaller played to the young Smith’s advantage. “He relied on timing ability, not power play,” says Stewart. “It was all about touch and placement. He’s added the power later on.” Mark Stoneman, the former England opener who played with Smith at Surrey, watched him add that power, and describes him as “a quiet worker, doing a lot of extra gym work away from watching eyes”. The result is a 6ft 2in strapping lad, whose combination of touch and power has not just earned a Test call-up, but interest from IPL franchises, too.

Homes, who will be at Lord’s on Friday (which happens to be Smith’s 24th birthday) remembers the young man’s timing, too. “The sound off the bat was different to other boys his age, because of the purity of that timing,” he says. Looking back at footage of him in Homes’s academy, all that has changed is his height and strength, especially when he drives.

Clubmates recognise his ‘genius’

Smith always kept wicket, but Stewart compares his glovework to his brother Alec’s.

“Keeping was always a big part of his package, and he was very talented at it, with excellent hands,” he explains. “But he would have worked harder on his batting and like a lot of batter-keepers he might have enjoyed just batting like Alec. I’m not surprised he’s made it this far as a wicketkeeper, though.”

Smith might be England’s tallest wicketkeeper ever, but also their least gobby. He is quiet, and does not waste words. “He’s got a dry sense of humour, but he’s not that jack-in-the-box character that keepers often are,” laughs Stewart.

Smith came from what Stewart calls “a lovely, normal, very supportive” family. His parents, Lawrence and Bernadette, signed him up for a camp at Sutton Cricket Club in the wake of the 2005 Ashes but, unusually, they are not cricket nuts.

“Having parents who weren’t diehard cricket fans actually helped,” said Homes. “They were supportive but let his coaches get on with things. And it made him very focused on working things out himself, which is a vital skill.”

Stewart agrees that “one of the biggest things about him was that he was a very independent thinker”, adding that “he didn’t just accept everything a coach told him, preferring to work things out himself”. In Stoneman’s words: “he’s not a coach pleaser”.