Jack Leach took one wicket on his first ball, another on his last, doing everything in between to prove he really could forge a Test career outside of Asia.
From the moment Ben Stokes entrusted him with the 12th over of that Test and was immediately rewarded with the wicket of New Zealand opener Will Young, Leach looked a changed man.
At Trent Bridge, at least until Jonny Bairstow blitzed England to victory last afternoon, one of the main narratives concerned Leach’s future: how exactly would he fend off challenges from Moeen Ali, Matt Parkinson and Adil Rashid ahead of the winter tour of Pakistan?
Jack Leach scored his first five-wicket haul on English soil against New Zealand
Numbers at Nottingham of two for 140 and one for 86 seemed less bowling analysis than letters of resignation.
By contrast, five for 100 from 38.3 overs at Leeds felt like a holy grail for an England spinner in the first innings of a home Test that offered both cut and control – once Graeme Swann’s calling card.
But with his first five-for on English soil, Leach continued to decline – at least statistically – until 1958 and Jim Laker, the former England spinner who won five wickets in the first innings of a Headingley Test, also against New Zealand.
And if the sacking of Henry Nicholls, intercepted midway by a deflection from Daryl Mitchell’s bat at the other end, became an instant social media sensation, then Leach kept his nerve under heavy bombardment yesterday to knock down New Zealand’s last three gates on either side of midday.
The spinner faced serious questions about his future after the second Test at Trent Bridge
But captain Ben Stokes showed confidence in Leach at Headingley and it paid off perfectly
Most importantly, he was made to feel wanted – not just by his early introduction to offense, but by feeling he was at the center of Stoke’s plan, a cog in the works, not, during the first innings of the Tourist 325 a rusty spoke.
While Joe Root often seemed unsure of how best to use his spinners in conditions that offered no obvious help, Stokes opted for the oldest trick in the Mann Manager’s book: making Leach feel good.
On one level, this is an instinctive impulse: Stokes will always enjoy a bond with Leach because it was here three years ago that the pair bet 76 for the last wicket to stun Australia. Leach’s share was not the most important in Test history.
So far, that frantic run to even the score and keep the Ashes alive has been the pinnacle of his Test career in that country – with apologies for the 92 he scored as a night watchman against Ireland in 2019.
Leach celebrates after taking Will Young’s wicket with his first ball in the third Test
Now, after removing Tim Southee and Neil Wagner within three balls just after lunch, he led his teammates off the field to a heartwarming ovation. There could not be a soul beneath the earth that grudged him.
Stokes can also empathize with a player whose off-field struggles in some ways mirror his own.
Last summer, Stokes took some time off from the game to look after his mental health. Leach is also exposed to demons, both physical and mental: Crohn’s disease, sepsis, Covid and – most recently as the first test of this series – concussion.
Above all, England’s new captain wants a spinner who can thrive in any conditions and knows he will only find one if he is willing to invest.
The 31-year-old was hopelessly abused during England’s somber Ashes series over the winter
In Australia, Leach was hopelessly abused over the winter, thrown to the dogs on a greentop in Brisbane and then asked to bowl a negative line in Melbourne. He was an apologetic presence, milked by hitters, taunted by crowds.
But England have seen Australia use Nathan Lyon, an off-spinner who plays long spells and has won 427 Test wickets around the world. They want to choose their own first choice spinner, and Stokes has chosen Leach.
It can’t work: international sport offers no guarantees. But if the extra drift Leach has imparted to the ball so far in this test is anything, it may not prove as one-dimensional as his performance at Nottingham might suggest.
It’s not as sexy as ‘Bazball’, but it could be just as meaningful.
