Jack Leach bumped his knee twice in the last two days, confirms Jeetan Patel

In what was called a bold move of their intent, England, anticipating a proper snakepit in Hyderabad, decided to play three spinners in the form of Jack Leach, Tom Hartley, and Rehan Ahmed, apart from the part-time option of Joe Root. 

However, to everyone’s surprise, Leach, who had last played a first-class match back in June 2023, was bowling sparsely, keeping himself to three to four over spells. Even when Hartley was giving away runs from one end, Ben Stokes persisted with him. Later, England’s spin-bowling coach Jeetan Patel confirmed that Jack Leach bumped his knee twice already in the last two days, which limited his options in the match.

"Jack Leach bumped his knee yesterday and he bumped it again today. He would have been our guy to bowl all those overs. It's a shame for him as he was not able to move as good as he could have. He actually bowled really well, considering," Jeetan Patel said in the press conference in Hyderabad. 

"Hartley had to take that on. Rehan bowled superbly, created some chances, and added a bit of flair to the game, and so did Root. The beauty of having so many spinners in the attack is you can share that."

England spinners proved majorly ineffective and even when England opted for the new ball, they had only one pacer in the form of Mark Wood to fall back on. Jeetan acknowledged that it was a tough day at work for their bowlers but appreciated the effort they put in to bargain for the wickets.

"It was a tough day for us. The guys put in a fantastic effort. It would have been nice if a few opportunities went our way but India batted really well, they put on some great partnerships," the spin-bowling coach added.

"But we are really proud at the way we kept coming ball after ball and creating opportunities. At some point, things turn for you and we just have to keep on going. Hartley has created opportunities and taken a couple of wickets. It would have been nice for him to have taken some more, but it is the way the game is at the moment. His time will come. 

“Root started with a great wicket, we talked about how we were going to get into the game early. Then it was about short spells because Leach has that knee issue so we have to be careful with everyone else. You can't just have one guy bowling 40 overs,” Patel concluded.