PAUL NEWMAN: Lurking Moeen Ali puts pressure on Jack Leach

There was an elephant in the room during England’s sensational second Test victory high up in the Radcliffe Road stand at Trent Bridge in the unlikely form of Moeen Ali.

Moeen was an insightful natural when he joined the Test Match Special team for two days of the Nottingham epic but it was when confirming Sportmail’s revelation that he had made himself available again for Test cricket that he ignited most interest.

Certainly it cannot have been easy for incumbent spinner Jack Leach to learn of Moeen saying he had twice been in conversation with Brendon McCullum about a return while he was toiling to make an impact against New Zealand on a flat pitch.

To be fair, Moeen was only providing honest answers to questions posed of him on air and he was at pains to point out he was not looking to replace either Leach or Matt Parkinson. Instead, he had just told McCullum he was ‘unretired’ if needed.

But it is significant that McCullum was so quickly on the phone when becoming England coach to an off-spin bowling all-rounder he knows well from the Indian Premier League and has also approached Adil Rashid about a possible Test comeback.

The bottom line is Leach is struggling to cement a place anywhere other than on turning pitches, as his lack of variation, drift and changes of pace at Trent Bridge demonstrated despite the best efforts of Ben Stokes to put faith in him.

Leach looks certain to play in the third Test at Headingley next week and in all probability the one-off match against India at Edgbaston that quickly follows, but beyond that his England future is uncertain.

Conventional logic suggests Moeen should first be playing red-ball cricket again for Worcestershire before he can be considered by England and if he is