Leach must still prove mastery of all conditions
England spinner cannot rely on record on helpful surfaces in Asia if he wants to be an integral part of bowling attack
The first ball was a little full, and reverse-swept through backward point for four. The next was an overcorrection – dragged too short, now clipped through midwicket for another boundary. The third was another overcorrection – too full again, and driven to the cover boundary.
A little after 3pm on the fourth day at Trent Bridge, with the fate of the second Test in the balance, Jack Leach leaked three consecutive boundaries, each to a different shot from Devon Conway. As he took his cap from the umpire, Leach did so nursing figures of nought for 38 from eight overs.
Ordinarily, these would be the prelude to being whisked out of the attack. But empowering players is a central tenet of England’s new approach. And so Ben Stokes continued to bowl Leach. Two overs later, after being reverse-swept for another brace of boundaries by Conway, Leach found a little extra bounce to catch the top edge.
The moment held out the hope of transforming Leach’s impact on the Test. Instead, it was the lone ray of sunshine for him on a cloudy, cold day. He ended with one for 78 from his 20 overs. He neither offered the incision hoped for from a spinner in the second innings of a Test, nor any real control.
There was plenty of mitigation for him, though: even on the fourth day, Trent Bridge offered the spinner scant assistance.
It was easy to see why Graeme Swann, England’s finest spinner since Derek Underwood, loathed playing at the venue. “I hated bowling there, I never got any wickets,” Swann said of his home ground from 2005-13. He was not being falsely modest, either: Swann averaged 36.4 in first-class matches at Trent Bridge, taking fewer than two wickets per game.
Yet, for Leach, Swann’s other comments about the ground are perhaps more revealing. “I made the move on purpose, because I knew it was very hard to bowl spin there and I thought I’d master it,” he said.
“It makes you a better bowler bowling on pitches where it doesn’t turn as much. It forces you to put more on the ball, more dip, more drift.”
The very difficulties of bowling at Trent Bridge, then, helped to develop Swann into a bowler who could succeed in all climes in Test cricket.
Leach’s craft was honed during the years of Taunton’s incarnation as “Ciderabad”: ideal preparation for the demands of bowling in Asia.
When the pitch suits his gifts, Leach has done sterling work for England, snaring 46 wickets at 27.3 apiece in nine Tests in Asia. But, on wickets outside Asia, his impact has been altogether less impressive: just 36 wickets in 15 Tests, at 41.1 each.
On turning wickets, beating batsmen off the pitch normally suffices. But on wickets that offer little turn, spinners need dip and drift. Indeed, New Zealand’s off-spinner Michael Bracewell provided a glimpse of what was possible in England’s innings. He came into his Test debut with just 27 first-class wickets, but he has generated twice as much drift as Leach, and more turn, too.
As Leach’s Test career has developed, he has morphed into a subtly different bowler. In every year since 2018, when he made his Test debut, Leach has both bowled quicker and pitched the ball shorter. So far in 2022, he is bowling 3mph quicker than in 2018; his average length is half a metre shorter. Indeed, wicketkeeper Ben Foakes observed that Leach was more dangerous at Trent Bridge when he pulled his pace back. “There seemed to be a bit of turn and bounce when he was slower,” Foakes said. “Once it was slightly slower, it seemed to bite a little bit more.”
This is the first home Test that Leach has bowled in for three years and yet it is hard to escape the sense that, in his 24th Test and 10 days short of turning 31, his career is at a critical juncture. His success bowling on turning wickets means that he will remain central to England’s plans in Asia. The question is whether he can develop the range needed to succeed in all climes.