Don’t mess with Bess

LEACH BACKS SPIN PARTNER TO BOUNCE BACK FROM INDIA HELL

JACK LEACH is backing Dom Bess to right the wrongs of the recent India tour – by triumphing the next time he plays there.

Bess was instrumental in England’s opening win of the four-Test series, taking five wickets in the match as Joe Root’s side won by 227 runs.

He dismissed four of India’s top six in the first innings – including captain Virat Kohli and new golden boy Rishabh Pant – on his way to figures of four for 76.

His reward was getting dropped for the second and third Tests of the series.

Bess returned in the final match in Ahmedabad, but was a shadow of his former self, going wicketless as England crashed to a third successive defeat.

Leach finished his own winter’s work in Sri Lanka and

India with 28 wickets – firmly establishing himself as the number one spin option for

England.

But the Somerset left-armer believes that Bess will be back.

And, like

Monty Panesar

(right, top) and

Graeme Swann

(right) – who suffered defeat on their first trip to India in

2008 before winning there in 2011/12 – Leach is sure that his combination with former county colleague Bess can bear fruit on England’s next tour of the country.

Leach insisted: “It was obviously tough for Dom in India towards the end, but he’s still only 23.

“The journey of a spinner is a long one, it takes time to learn your craft.

“You have to have that patience on the field as a spinner – and you have to have it off the field too.

“Dom has achieved a lot at a young age and he needs to recognise that. He’ll keep learning, he’ll keep refining his craft and I’m absolutely sure he’ll come back stronger.

“He’ll play a lot more for England in the future.

“Swann and Panesar lost in their first series together in India – and then they came back and won the second time around.

“I can’t see any reason why me and Dom can’t do the same.” Leach was Bess’s partner in crime at Somerset during the latter’s time in the west country before his move to Yorkshire last September.

They formed a formidable double-act at Taunton on pitches ideally suited to spin.

Leach, 29, was always the senior partner in domestic cricket and now he has assumed that role in the

England team too. And it’s a measure of his maturity and growing confidence that he bounced back superbly from being targeted by India’s batsmen in the opening innings of the series in Chennai.

“You learn a lot from the good things but you learn from the challenging moments as well,” Leach said. “That first Test I learned a hell of a lot and found it very rewarding – I had a tough time but then came back in the same game.

“I won’t lie – I wasn’t feeling too positive at the time, but I realised there were two days left in the Test match and it was going to spin more and more as the game went on.

“I still had a big part to play and, as a spinner in particular, it’s about coming back stronger the next day. I wouldn’t say it was a ‘good’ experience – but it was a really valuable one at that level.

“In a weird way, it gave me a lot of confidence – it allowed me to be myself for the rest of the series.

“I wasn’t worried about messing up, I just viewed everything as a positive opportunity to impact games.”