England’s spin-bowling coach Jeetan Patel revealed that left-arm spinner Jack Leach aggravated his knee injury during the second day of the first Test against India on Friday here in Hyderabad. Leach who is the most experienced spinner among the four injured his knee while trying to save a boundary on day one. He aggravated his injury on the morning of the second day. As a result, Leach just bowled 16 overs out of 87, bowling at most four overs in a spell and also leaving the field to receive treatment.
“He banged his knee last night, the first dive down at fine leg. Then he banged it again today and it’s giving him a little gyp, to be honest. You noticed in the outfield he was a little sluggish trying to get to balls, but he stuck at it and I thought he actually bowled really, really well considering,” Jeetan said, as quoted from ESPNcricinfo.
“It must be pretty serious, or serious for him anyway, because the reality is he wouldn’t shirk that responsibility. It is sore enough. You watch him in the outfield and I don’t think it’s a graze. For him to come back and keep bowling the overs he did… I believe he’ll be back in the fourth innings,” Jeetan stated.
“That’s what Jack does for this team, he’ll always put in. But it’s an bit of a shame from where he’s come [recovering from a stress fracture of the back last summer] to dive on one at fine leg and all of a sudden you’re hobbling around. He’ll be back. He’s one of the strongest guys in the team. We’ve had to share the load and I thought the guys did really well,” Jeetan added.
In Leach’s limited presence, Joe Root took the onus and bowled 25 overs scalping two while spilling away 77 runs. He removed set batter Yashasvi Jaiswal (80) and Srikar Bharat (41) turning the tides in favour of the visitors.
Jeetan was hopeful about Leach’s comeback stating that he had one night of rest and said, “He’s got another night to rest it. He’s a tough bloke and he’ll be raring to go. He’s never going to shirk the responsibility of the job he has, but it’s about being smart as well. We’ve got four Tests to go and another innings at the back end of this game. We need a key man like Jack.”
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