England put faith in 28-year-old Jack Leach to put heat on Smith

Good luck Jack Leach. Apparently the five Test spinner is the answer to dismissing Steve Smith, the batsman rated the best since Bradman. This is why.

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As Steve Smith threatens to run riot in this Ashes, England are putting their faith in a ginger-haired rookie left-arm tweaker who bears a striking resemblance to Nathan Lyon — at least as far as haircuts go.

If England are to regain a foothold in this Ashes series, they need to find a way to stop Smith. His twin centuries in the first Test at Edgbaston earned him man of the match and took his tally of runs in his past 10 innings against England to 1116 — at an average of 139.50 runs per dismissal.

After the humiliating 251-run defeat in Birmingham, England’s Test selectors have turned to late bloomer Jack Leach — all the more so because of Smith’s struggles against left-arm spin, according to CricViz statistics.

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Steve Smith has an apparent weakness against left-arm spin. Picture: Lindsey Parnaby/AFP) /

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Leach is a Somerset left-arm spin bowler who, at the age of 26, made his debut for England last year against New Zealand before excelling in England’s series win against Sri Lanka last year — taking 18 wickets in the three Tests.

In the most recent of his five Tests, Leach was an unexpected star with the bat, scoring 92 as a nightwatchman in England’s 143-run win over Ireland in the one-off Test at Lord’s. However, it is with the ball that England will be urging the now 28-year-old to make his mark on the same ground when the second Ashes Test starts on Wednesday evening (Australian time).

There’ll be no shortage of pressure on Jack Leach in the second Test at Lord’s. Picture: Henry Browne/Getty Images

Leach is a classical left-arm spin bowler with a strong, traditional action. He forced his way into England’s Test team last year through sheer weight of wickets. Bowling on notoriously dry pitches in Taunton Leach, snared 190 wickets in the County Championship since 2016 — no English-qualified spinner has taken more.

Across his career Leach has a sensational record against right-handers — averaging 21.89 against them compared with 35.56 against left-handers. This bodes well for his clash with Australia’s right-handed No.4.

Looking at Smith’s record against the different types of bowlers shows he has more difficulties against left-arm finger spinners than any other type of bowler.

Nothing seems to be able to stop Smith after he notched centuries in each innings at Edgbaston. Picture: Lindsey Parnaby/AFP)

Closer analysis of the left-arm spinners who have troubled Smith suggests that some truly world-class bowlers such as Rangana Herath, Ravindra Jadeja and Keshav Maharaj have had success against Smith, but so, too, has the South African allrounder Dean Elgar, a slow-bowling part-timer.

But there’s more to stopping Smith than simply bowling Leach. Here’s how and why has left-arm spin troubled Australia’s middle-order maestro, according to our CricViz statistics.

ANGLE

The first thing we can identify is the angle Leach needs to bowl is from around the wicket. Nineteen of Smith’s 21 dismissals to left-arm spin have come from this angle of delivery.

This is the traditional method for left-arm finger spinners to bowl to right-handed batsmen in Test cricket because coming from around the wicket, they can drift the ball into the pads and spin the ball away, thereby bringing lbw and bowled into play, as well as caught behind or in the slips.

SPEED

The next of Leach’s concerns is his speed. Analysis of ball-tracking data shows how slower speeds are what have caused Smith most problems, with his average against balls between 0 and 83km/h dropping to just 28.00, compared with 43.44 against balls faster than that.

This is good news for Leach, who so far in his admittedly short Test career has generally operated at these slower speeds — delivering 79 per cent of his balls at 83km/h or less.

LENGTH

After speed, the next issue is line and length. The keys here are unsurprising. Smith’s record against left-arm spin is clearly worst against balls on a classical “good” length — that is, for spin bowlers between three and five metres from the stumps.

The margin for error, particularly when overpitching, is small: Smith’s record is significantly better when left-arm spinners go too full.

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LINE

In terms of line, Smith’s record is clearly poorest against balls that pitch in line with the stumps — with his average dropping to 28.12 against these balls.

However, Smith also finds balls outside off-stump challenging as well. The key thing is simply not to stray too straight.

CONDITIONS

The good news for England is that it appears left-arm spinners are not overly dependent on conditions for their success against Smith. Ball-tracking data shows Smith has in fact had most difficulty when the ball has only spun a small amount.

England should remain wary of overburdening Leach — he is only at the very start of his Test career and remains inexperienced at this level.

Originally published as England put faith in 28-year-old Jack Leach to put heat on Smith