Speaking to the Wisden Cricket Weekly Podcast, Jack Leach explained that scoring 92 as a nightwatchman in the first Test of the summer against Ireland was the turning point for his batting.
Listen to the full interview with Jack Leach on the latest episode of the Wisden Cricket Weekly Podcast, available on Spotify and the Podcast App.
Prior to the Ireland Test at Lord’s, Leach averaged 10.97 in first-class cricket. In six first-class matches since, that number rises to an impressive 31.60 and his dismissal rate since the start of the Ireland Test (74.80) is better than the likes of Virat Kohli, Joe Root, and Babar Azam in that time period.
As well as his 92, he famously survived an hour with Ben Stokes for the last wicket at Headingley, batted for 64 minutes in the second innings at Old Trafford and put on 59 runs for the last wicket to help Somerset recover from 144-9 in the vital County Championship decider at Taunton.
To face the likes of Pat Cummins and Mitchel Starc not long after suffering from concussion can’t have been easy for Leach, but he says that he doesn’t feel any psychological hangover from the blow and has a method he trusts against bowling of any speed.
“I feel over the concussion. I’ve found a method in between balls in how to cope if I am feeling any anxiety out there to lower that and focus on the ball and to remember if I stand reasonably still and trust that if a ball is coming at me I will get out of the way of it.”
