The English spinner, Jack Leach was “not sure” if he wanted to continue playing cricket after being hammered by Rishabh Pant in the opening Test against India and is quite chuffed about recovering just in time to make a winning contribution in the match. He was clobbered by a marauding Pant on the third afternoon of the first Test but fought his way back to pick six wickets over the next two days as England won by a whopping 227 runs.
During a recent chat with Sky Sports, Jack Leach said, “Went through every emotion under the sun in our first Test win and I guess that’s why we love cricket so much. After conceding 77 runs off eight overs on day three I was not sure if I wanted to play cricket again so I’m really proud to have come back and contributed to the team’s victory. Who would have thought the game would feel that hard when you have won by 227 runs?”
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His wickets included one of the Indian openers, Rohit Sharma, at the fag end of the fourth day’s play when he bowled a ripper to leave the batsman clueless with the delivery’s turn and bounce. Leach said England will miss the services of senior wicket-keeper batsman Jos Buttler in the upcoming three matches. Besides his keeping, Buttler is one of the cleanest hitters of the ball in English cricket and the decision to rest him hasn’t gone down too well with a few former England players.
Describing the same, Leach said, “Jos has kept amazingly well in the three-Test matches this year and it’s great to see him doing so well. It’s hugely inspiring for me to see a guy I played Somerset U11s with get to 50 Tests and it makes me even more motivated to play as many games as I can.”
The celebration of the win the Chennai Test done and dusted, Leach is bracing up for a strong comeback from the Indian in the second match, scheduled from February 13 to 17 at the same venue — MA Chidambaram Stadium.
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Jack Leach said, “Given India’s previous recent record at home — 28 wins and five draws from 34 games — we knew we were going to be up against it and the challenge now is to get ourselves fresh and mentally and physically ready for the second Test on Saturday,” he wrote. India are a class team and they will come back fighting, so we have to be ready; it’s important that we keep trying to improve in practice.”
The England spinner called his captain Joe Root, who made a magnificent double hundred in the opener, the best player of spin in the world.
