Injury to Leach adds intrigue as Smith announces his first squad

● Moeen return likely but selector may spring surprises ahead of Pakistan Test

Jack Leach’s broken thumb adds an extra complication to the age-old conundrum which was already facing new national selector Ed Smith when he picks his first Test squad.

Leach was injured batting in the Taunton nets on the eve of today’s selection meeting and announcement at Lord’s of the squad to face Pakistan there next week.

With few other plausible spin-bowling contenders, the return of Moeen Ali – dropped to allow Leach’s debut in Christchurch two months ago – is the obvious solution.

Before the late drama, Smith’s issue appeared merely to be whether to stick or twist at the start of his tenure – against a backdrop of varied predictions but an apparent consensus that he will not be going too left-field just yet.

Smith developed a reputation through his playing and then press and broadcast days as an erudite freethinker.

The probability is therefore that a Cambridge graduate who won three Test caps at the height of his 12-year career with Kent and then Middlesex will not be averse to springing a surprise or two at some point in his new guise.

If there is to be any tinkering for the two-test series against Pakistan, an opening partner for Alastair Cook is an obvious starting point.

Cook is already up to his 12th

0 James Vince: Good start. opening partner since 2012, and of all the changes England may make at this stage Mark Stoneman’s place appears most vulnerable.

It appeared at the end of a winless winter that both Stoneman and James Vince at No 3 had done just enough, along with Dawid Malan deeper in the middle order, to be given at least one more opportunity to prove themselves.

While Vince and Malan have started the new domestic season

0 Dawid Malan:just enough. well enough, however, Stoneman has been worryingly short of championship runs for Surrey.

Of the alternatives, stars are aligning best for Nick Gubbins on the back of 107 and 99 in his last two championship innings.

The time may be right for the 24-year-old to make his Test debut on his home ground next week.

Further down the list, several out-of-the-box ideas have been floated – including a debut, too, for Surrey wicketkeeper Ben Foakes to take the gloves and allow Jonny Bairstow to move up the order unencumbered.

Several uncapped options such as Worcestershire’s rising star Joe Clarke are also in the conversation alongside Liam Livingstone as an extra batsman in an anticipated 13-man squad.

It is most likely nonetheless that, after Leach’s misfortune, England will alter as little as possible from the team which drew the last Test in Christchurch.

Chris Woakes, also dropped there, and Mark Wood should both be in the final equation ahead of fellow seamer Craig Overton. POSSIBLE ENGLAND TEST SQUAD: JE Root (captain), AN Cook, NRT Gubbins, JM Vince, DJ Malan, BA Stokes, JM Bairstow (wkt), CR Woakes, MM Ali, SCJ Broad, JM Anderson, MA Wood, JM Clarke.

0 Chris Froome: Poor form. things have happened. I’m going to take the race one day at a time. I still want to do the best I can do: if that’s 20th place, if it’s second place, or if it’s first place. I’m here to race. I’m a bike racer and that’s what I’m going to do.”

Froome made the Girotour double his goal for the season, despite riders such as Alberto Contador and Nairo Quintana coming up short in recent seasons. Nobody has done the Girotour double since Marco Pantani in 1998.

His Giro bid was hit by crashes before the opening time trial in Jerursalem and during Saturday’s stage eight, but Froome also put his poor form in the first week down to a training plan tailored to hit his peak in the last week of the Giro in order to be in good shape for the Tour.

“I always came into the Giro with the plan of building into the race, with the bigger goal of doing the Giro d’italia and going on to the Tour de France,” he said.