Jack Leach believes that being dropped by England during their home summer enabled him to fall back in love with cricket, aided by an unexpected phone call from Ben Stokes in the aftermath of a Test win. Leach is the leading wicket-taker in England's series in Pakistan with 14, but had only played two Tests in the 18 months before the tour and failed to complete either due to back and knee injuries. He had returned to full fitness after knee surgery by the time England picked their first Test of the summer in June, but they selected his Somerset team-mate Shoaib Bashir instead. Bashir earned widespread praise after his match-winning five-wicket haul against West Indies at Trent Bridge, and was preferred throughout the rest of the summer. But when England returned to their Nottingham hotel after that win, Stokes called Leach to tell him that Bashir's success did not mean he had been forgotten.

"I felt really happy and proud," Leach recalled on Monday, speaking at England's hotel in Islamabad. "He just wanted to tell me how great I was, basically, in the way that he does, and just recognise how I've dealt with the situation. That gave me a chance to say some nice things back to him about what he'd given me, probably going back to 2019 at Headingley. "There's just a mutual respect there, so it was a nice conversation to have for sure. It just reminded me that I was going about things in the right way, and gave me confidence I still had something to offer the team and I was a part of it, in a small way. That gave me good motivation for the remainder of the summer… a nice reminder that there was still a chance to play." Leach admitted that he briefly feared that his England career would be over when he initially learned of his omission. "You always do," he said.

"After a long time out with injury, I maybe felt that might be it… I really understood the situation. If you're not able to stay fit, then other people come in and do well, and Bash certainly did that." But he was happy with the level of communication from England's management throughout, and received a similar call from Brendon McCullum the day after speaking to Stokes in July. "I was really happy with that - and in a way, not surprised, because of what I'd experienced when I was there [in the squad]," he said. "I'm very thankful for that, and my relationship with those guys." After a slow start to the season which saw him take nine wickets at 50.44 in his first four appearances for Somerset, Leach thrived at the end of the year with 36 at 15.86 in five matches. He said that the secret was as simple as "remembering what I'm about, and being happy with that" rather than worrying too much about making minor technical changes.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan