Whichever way England spin it, Leach injury is big issue to fix

HOW TYPICAL that after a winter worrying about batting luxuries and a spring spent fretting over a diminishing but still enviable wealth of seam reserves, it is England’s cupboard least well stocked that, as the summer begins, appears to have run bare.

- Malik Ouzia

The puzzling over where Jonny Bairstow would slot back in was billed as the proverbial nice problem to have; scares over the fitness of James Anderson and Ollie Robinson set, hopefully, to prove false alarms; but news of Jack Leach’s stress fracture does not fit either brief.

The spinner, the sole frontline option in England’s Ashes squad, is out of the series, confirmed yesterday evening after he had experienced discomfort in the win over Ireland at Lord’s on Saturday.

Given Leach’s history of injury and, in particular, illness issues, it seems peculiar now that more thought was not given, in the cricketing public discourse, to what a Leach-less England might look like this summer until it became a reality last night, though nor is it difficult to understand why.

In a team full of them, Leach is not among England’s sexier cricketers and, to the more casual observer, remains as well known as the cult figure of 2019 adulation as the player emboldened by the backing of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum over the last 12 months.