Cricket: Jack Leach’s unlikely rise could solve England’s spin conundrum

When I first saw Jack Leach bowl six or seven years ago I may have made a similar mistake to the England selectors. Instinctively we all look for a natural athleticism in our young sportsmen that is identifiable by their effortless, feline movement. When everything happens gracefully with time to spare we nod to one another, earmarking another star. It was not like that for me when watching Leach in 2011, or for the selectors in 2017.

Leach does not glide around the field like a gazelle; his muscles seldom ripple. He has lost a lot of hair; unusually he plays cricket in glasses; he does not ooze the eager bravado that can be so reassuring to coaches, who yearn for players that are forever “up for it”. Leach does not quite fit the identikit of the modern super-fit, super-trim sportsman.

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Yet in the West Country Leach is a bit of a hero. In the last two seasons he has done as much as anyone with his left-arm orthodox spin to keep Somerset in the first division of the Championship.

He may never be the complete Test cricketer, but at least there may now be the realisation among the selectors – I’ve been convinced of this for a while – that he is the best available spinner in the country, though he has only been summoned to New Zealand after the discovery of a stress fracture in Mason Crane’s back.

Leach is universally liked at Taunton and he is increasingly admired after the way he handled his nightmarish winter of 2016-17, when doubts surfaced about his action after a routine test at Loughborough in September 2016 – no one had ever queried his action before. To make matters worse the ECB made his situation public in the clumsiest of manners at the end of the tour to India when nearly everyone was puzzled that Liam Dawson rather than Leach had been called up.

Leach, now 26, has shown his worth as a doughty competitor in tight situations for Somerset over the last two years – with bat as well as ball.

There is no great mystery about his bowling. He is accurate; he has added more zip to his stock delivery; he is not intimidated by the prospect of bowling on turning pitches – some spinners are – and he has an impressively calm temperament.

He has also trained hard so he looks physically more robust now. Moreover he is growing in confidence as demonstrated by the way he coped with his first meeting with the national press, which is obviously an awesome experience.

Another late-maturing spinner, Australia’s Nathan Lyon, was regarded as an unfashionable, one-dimensional bowler when he started, a bit of a journeyman. Not any more. Perhaps the same could happen to Leach, who is sharp enough to recognise that next winter’s tours to Sri Lanka and West Indies provide him with a big opportunity, but realistic enough to take nothing for granted in the meantime.