Jack Leach insists fighting to reclaim his status as England’s number-one spinner is “not important” after a summer of introspection helped rekindle his love of the game.
Leach lost his first-choice spot to Somerset colleague Shoaib Bashir earlier this year, having initially surrendered his grip when a knee injury forced him out of the tour to India.
The pair have played in tandem during this month’s series in Pakistan, which goes to a third Test decider in Rawalpindi on Thursday, but Leach, a dozen years older at 33, has again looked like the senior man.
The left-armer has 14 wickets at 26.50 compared to Bashir’s record of six at 51.16 and is the only bowler from either side to be trusted with more than 100 overs so far.
Should he impress again this week it could test the conviction of the England selectors but Leach himself is unmoved by the idea of striving for supremacy with his Taunton team-mate.
“For me it’s all about the team. I’m maybe at an age where that’s all that really matters to me,” he said.
“They haven’t said either way and, for me, that’s not important at the moment. It’s all about coming out here and trying to contribute. Whether you’re playing as that first or second spinner, it doesn’t matter.
“You’re both working together and trying to do well for the team. That (pecking order) is not really in my thoughts. I don’t know whether that will ever happen for me but that’s not the most important thing.
“Whereas before it was maybe ‘I just want wickets, I need wickets’, maybe it’s a slightly different mindset now.”
Leach’s relaxed outlook comes on the back of a season in the trenches of county cricket, time he spent rebuilding his enthusiasm for the sport.
Having wrestled with form, fitness, illness and injury during his time in the international arena, he used his demotion by England as a chance to reassess.
“I was disappointed but I felt very clear on what I needed to do: my goal for the summer was to just enjoy the game of cricket and try to do my best for whoever I was playing for,” he said.
“When you have those kind of setbacks – the injuries I had in India – another one is not too bad to deal with. (I wanted) to really enjoy my cricket with Somerset and learn to love the game a bit more again.
“I just felt like I needed to rediscover that kid-like mentality of why you play the game. You have that on the journey up to playing for England, that nothing-to-lose mentality. Then it’s, ‘I’m here now, I want to keep that’.
“That’s tiring, it’s stressful, it’s not enjoyable. The upsides, the opportunity, all the things Baz (head coach Brendon McCullum) talks to us about, I felt like I loved all of those things but maybe I was being a bit of a fraud in terms of enjoying them but not actually living by them.
“I’ve tried to do that and it certainly made me enjoy the game more.”
Rawalpindi represents a return to one of Leach’s most cherished moments – taking the match-winning wicket late on the final evening in 2022 to beat the race against bad light and complete one of England’s most unlikely overseas victories.
“That’s probably my favourite wicket,” he said.
“I remember coming off and saying to Jimmy Anderson, ‘I feel quite emotional’. It was an amazing game of cricket and always one of the most special wins I’ve played in.”