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.
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Crucially though, that innings helped him regain confidence that he had lost somewhat after suffering from concussion sustained from a blow on the helmet by a Morne Morkel delivery in June 2018.
“I think it really was the turning point in the summer in terms of my batting,” Leach told the Wisden Cricket Weekly Podcast. “I’ve had a bit of struggle since last summer since I got hit in the head and had concussion and on the back of breaking my thumb in the nets before the Pakistan series last summer.
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“I had a couple of blows batting and that knocked my confidence so just to spend some time out in the middle. You try and do the training as much as you can but you obviously want to stay fit for bowling so you maybe put your batting to one side to stay fit and stay on the park and then it put me in a bad place with my batting.
“Spending that time out in the middle at Lord’s in front of a good crowd and to get that time batting was really helpful and kind of gave me a lot more confidence definitely.”
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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.”
