JACK LEACH INTERVIEW: I woke up that day thinking 'oh I might get a call'... it turned out so different

SAM MORSHEAD - EXCLUSIVE: Leach pauses, particularly when he is asked to explain his emotions over the timing of his broken thumb and the fact that it is his close friend and county colleague Dom Bess who has benefited. The feelings are still raw

^{Jack Leach is recovering from a broken thumb}

As Dom Bess sat in front of the country’s media at Lord’s on Tuesday, priming himself for his Test debut, the man whose place he has taken - at least temporarily - was completing laps of the Taunton outfield.

It wasn’t meant to be like this.

Eight days previously, Jack Leach had woken up with a sense of excitement. The England squad for the first international of the summer was due to be announced the next afternoon and that could mean a call from Ed Smith at any point.

Leach was the incumbent, of course, and a promising display in Christchurch at the end of the mammoth Antipodean winter tour meant he was favourite to play against Pakistan.

By the end of last Monday, however, the landscape looked very different for Leach, his left thumb swollen and throbbing and an X-ray confirming his worst fears.

^{Leach has spoken to The Cricketer about his injury frustration}

“I wasn’t sure at first. I was telling myself it was a bit bruised and I just needed the swelling to go down,” he tells his audience of one in a County Ground pavilion stairwell, a scenario quite removed from the battery of cameras and dictaphones aimed towards Bess at HQ earlier that afternoon.

“I woke up that day thinking ‘oh I might get a call today’, about selection - it was going to be announced the day after that, and then the day turns out so different.”

For someone who has worked so hard to force his way into the England setup over the course of two superb years with Somerset in the County Championship, it was a cruel twist of fate.

Occasionally during our conversation, Leach pauses, particularly when he is asked to explain his emotions over the timing of this particular injury and the fact that it is his close friend and county colleague Bess who has benefited. The feelings are evidently still very raw.

“There’s no guarantee I would be selected but it kind of felt like it was my place and through an injury that’s gone now, for a bit,” he says, his voice threatening to crack. As an interviewer, just nodding along doesn’t feel appropriate.

“The way sport works is someone else gets a go and if they do well then it’s theirs.

“It’s tough when that’s what you’ve been aiming for and then it’s gone so quickly but I have full faith that I can get back to bowling well and put myself back in the frame.

“It hurts a bit more because I felt like I was happy with the start that I made. It gave me confidence that I was good enough at that level but also gave me things to improve the next time I got a go.”

If this situation absolutely had to arise, Leach agrees, it has produced the best possible result.

He speaks glowingly of his replacement, a man whose professional and personal qualities he knows so very well.

“I’m really excited for Dom and really hurt for myself… it’s a really strange situation in that way,” he says.

^{Dom Bess has taken Leach's place in the England squad}

“Throughout my time bowling with Dom, we’ve really supported each other. There’s naturally competition with each other. Bowling spin, there’s usually only one spinner in a team. Here we play on wickets where we’ve played together and we’ve formed quite a good partnership. That’s something that shouldn’t be underestimated. We’ll continue to support each other on and off the field.

“I’ve played one game so I can’t give him a huge amount of advice but I’ve told him that he’s got there doing what he does well and being Dom Bess. He doesn’t need to change that at the next level.

“I have huge belief in him as an individual. He’s got a great character and a special talent. There’s no reason why he shouldn’t do well.”

Leach will miss out on the opportunity of playing with long-time friend Jos Buttler at Lord’s - “walking out with him would have been special” - and to take his mind off the frustration of the whole affair the Somerset strength and conditioning team have been instructed to get him “into the shape of my life”.

His left hand is now clad in plaster - thankfully the injury did not require an operation - and until it is removed he cannot go near a cricket ball.

“I’ve been bowling a few in the mirror, which I can’t help myself doing,” he says.

"Dom has deserved his chance and that’s come now. It should be more about him than me. I’ll be supporting him on Thursday and I hope that he goes well"

“It’s a chance to refocus and let it be a positive thing for my season going forward and make it drive me on.

“I’ve had a few setbacks over my career so far and I try to look at them as a chance to help me grow and get better.”

And some setbacks they have been.

A freak accident at home, where he fainted and hit his head, left him with a fractured skull and concussion which ruled him out of much of the 2015 campaign.

Eighteen months later, Leach had to remodel his action after his arm was found to bend beyond the permitted 15 degrees.

He also had to deal with a stress fracture in his back, suffered while playing grade cricket in Australia.

It is quite something, then, that despite all that the 26-year-old has collected 116 County Championship victims over the past two seasons to force himself into the England picture.

“It’s something you hear a lot, from a lot of people… the setbacks are the times when you learn the most and can use them to help you get better. That’s how you do get better,” he says.

“Those injuries give you time to think about how you want to move forward."

^{Leach made his Test debut in New Zealand}

Throughout our conversation, Leach is at pains to emphasis just how pleased he is for Bess. It never feels disingenuous, nor precipitated by the need to appear to be saying the right thing.

He is at once chuffed for his friend and desperately disappointed for himself.

"He has had great news and I have had equally bad news, but I don’t think we let that get in the way of what it is," he says.

“Dom has deserved his chance and that’s come now. It should be more about him than me. I’ll be supporting him on Thursday and I hope that he goes well,” he adds, magnanimously.

“It’s just a natural feeling, to be disappointed for myself. But it’s alright to have two completely different emotions. I would have been disappointed for myself whoever else had that place. For it to be Dom, who’s my mate, who I’ve helped, who’s helped me, who’s been a big part of my career and vice versa, that’s an exciting thing for me and I try to separate the two emotions.

“I don’t just feel I’m gutted for myself - I am gutted for myself, I’m not going to lie about that, but I’m also really happy for him.”

National Selector Smith has now called Leach, to check in on his recovery work and offer encouragement.

The spinner is hoping that, come the winter trip to Sri Lanka, Smith will have every inclination to pick both him and Bess.

For now, though, perspective is needed. And for a man who has had his tangles with adversity in the recent past, that seems to come pretty naturally.

“It’s a long career and it’s a long season. Six weeks is hopefully a very short part of it. There are a lot more exciting things to come.”

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