England spinner Jack Leach hurt his knee on the opening day of the first Test against India in Hyderabad and ended up aggravating it on the morning session of Day 2.
Leach is the most experienced of the three specialist spinners England have brought on the ongoing tour of India which got underway on Thursday.
As a result of the injury, the left-arm spinner managed just 16 of the 87 overs England bowled during Day 2 and he repeatedly left the field to have his knee treated.
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Ben Stokes, the England captain, was forced to rely on the part-time spin of Joe Root who ended up bowling 25 overs. The two other spinners – Rehan Ahmed and debutant Tom Hartley have bowled 48 overs between them.
“He banged his knee last night, the first dive down at fine leg,” England spin-bowling coach Jeetan Patel said on Friday. “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.”
“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,” he added.
India reached 421/7 at the close of play on Friday and have extended their lead to 175 runs.
Despite England’s latest headache, Patel is keeping a positive outlook and backed Leach to tough it out.
“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 (after stress fracture) 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 the I thought the guys did really well.” he said.
“He’s got another night to rest it. He’s a tough bloke and he’ll be raring to go,” Patel said. “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,” he added.
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