Jack Leach enjoying life in ‘extremely positive’ England set-up

Jack Leach praised captain Ben Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum for giving the confidence boost he needed to drive England’s victory push on another heady day at Headingley.

The Somerset spinner had not played a Test match on home soil since the summer of 2019 until England’s new leadership team put their faith in him at the start of the New Zealand series.

He then suffered a concussion while fielding on the very first morning at Lord’s, a misfortune that could have cost him his place after Matt Parkinson was drafted in as an emergency replacement for that match.

But Stokes and McCullum have held the line, picking him at Trent Bridge and again at Leeds, trusting him at key moments of the game and insisting on the kind of attacking fields that maximise his wicket-taking potential rather than minimise risk.

The rewards have come rolling in over the past four days, with Leach taking the first 10-wicket match of his Test career with five in each innings.

His efforts are a major reason why England are hot favourites to seal a 3-0 win on Monday, when Ollie Pope and Joe Root resume 113 runs from victory on 183 for two.

“I don’t know if I thought something like this was possible or not before, probably not,” Leach said.

I've never experienced anything like the atmosphere in that dressing room, this positive way of doing things.- Jack Leach

“I think the biggest thing is having belief in myself and that’s what Ben and Baz have really helped me with. It looks like that’s starting to pay off.

“I am really enjoying working with Stokesy. I say ‘what about putting mid-on back?’ and he just says no. It’s really attacking and I am enjoying bowling like that as well. I’ve never experienced anything like the atmosphere in that