Leach rediscovers mojo after Bazball 'fraud' fears

Spinner could play key role in series decider for England after a phone call from Stokes sparked resurgence

- Simon Burnton

At the start of the summer Jack Leach found himself out of the Test side and not sure how much fun he was having. The previous year had been ruined by a stress fracture of his back, the start of this one by a knee injury, and just as he returned to first-team cricket he fielded a call from Brendon McCullum telling him he was not going to be in England's next Test squad. "After a long time out with injury," he said, "I felt that might be it."

Now he is back in the team and back in Rawalpindi, where on his last visit he took what he considers "probably my favourite wicket" to win the first Test of the 2022 series against Pakistan, and where in the buildup to Thursday's series decider, ground staff are busy cooking up a pitch they hope will suit their own spinners but might just help their opponents' too.

In between he had one of his best English summers, taking 45 wickets at 22.77 in the County Championship. "It was just getting back to remembering what I'm about and being happy with that," he said. "When I first came into the England team, it's great and then you kind of think: 'What do I need to do to be better?' It's quite a fine line between trying to get better and trying to change. Sometimes I was guilty of trying to change, and then you forget what your main strengths are. This summer provided a really good opportunity to simplify everything: just do what I'm good at."