Ashes spy drama: Why Stokes will need all his wiles to overcome England injuries

It’s just as well that England’s captain Ben Stokes got the chance to hang out with Oscar-winner Gary Oldman for his birthday.

The way England’s bowling stocks are going, Stokes is going to need all the ingenuity and street smarts of Oldman’s latest alter ego, the cynical British spymaster Jackson Lamb, to succeed against Australia in the Ashes.

Lamb, as lead character in the lauded Mick Herron novels and Apple TV series Slow Horses, is in charge of the ragtag group referenced in the show’s title.

Lacking the tech accoutrements of MI5 proper, they shamble their way through with a mixture of good fortune and Lamb’s canny judgement - well concealed as it often is beneath his dishevelled appearance, odour and taste for cheap Chinese takeaway.

For Stokes, the loss of the left-arm spin bowler Jack Leach to a back stress fracture that emerged during England’s stroll past Ireland at Lord’s was a much bigger blow than it may seem at first. That’s because while Leach’s gifts are modest next to those of Nathan Lyon, he, Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum have worked successfully to make him a central piece of the Bazball puzzle.

Jack Leach and Ben Stokes celebrate the 2019 Headingley heist.Credit: AP

With a more proactive, wickets-focused attitude than previously, Leach has consistently made key breakthroughs while delivering precious overs that allowed Stokes and other pace bowlers to rest. On day one against Ireland, it was Leach rather than Stuart Broad who winkled out the hard-hitting Paul Stirling, past his peak but still the best of the batters from the Emerald Isle.

In combining defence and attack, Leach was doing a decent job of emulating the sort of role once fulfilled by Graeme Swann, a bowler whose loss of control due to elbow problems marked the beginning of the end of the highly accomplished if intense Andy Flower era of the England Test team.

It cannot be known what caused Leach’s ailment, a rare stress fracture for a spin bowler, but he was clearly putting his whole body into hard spun deliveries at the Irish middle order. The deliveries were whirred down at the sort of pace that has made Lyon extremely difficult to attack, and once also caused opponents to hesitate about dancing down the pitch to a young Shane Warne.

In addition to Leach, England don’t have Jofra Archer, Olly Stone or Jamie Overton - their quickest bowlers - and are praying that James Anderson’s 40-year-old hamstrings hold up after his recovery from a recent strain in county cricket. Josh Tongue made a promising debut against Ireland and has decent speed, but replacements for Leach are harder to find.

Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid, the best two English spin bowlers to emerge between Swann and Leach, are now committed to white ball formats, Moeen having already knocked back one entreaty from England ahead of last year’s Pakistan Test series. Youngsters Will Jacks and Rehan Ahmed each had their moments alongside Leach on that tour, but would be highly vulnerable to Australia’s top seven should they be pitched into the Ashes.

Another option would be to recall Chris Woakes as a fourth seamer, also lengthening the England batting order, and asking Joe Root to perform the spinner’s work.

Either way, it is difficult to see Ollie Robinson repeating the casual off-breaks he resorted to in Adelaide on the last Ashes tour. That really was a moment to recall Lamb’s Slow Horses, and his “inspirational” speech at the end of season one: “Working with you has been the lowest point of a disappointing career.”

Stokes, though, will have to conjure up something like Lamb’s skill in spycraft. Sizing up the Australian batters, their weak points and the best bowlers, fields and tactics for them when he cannot call upon many of his first choice bowlers to do so. At times, too, that will include himself on account of a wonky knee.

The good news for the Ashes hosts is that the aforementioned injuries have not shaken England’s belief in their captain and his ability to decipher the best way to use his resources for taking wickets and winning a Test match.

Anderson, who has been around the England dressing room almost as long as Lamb at a fictional MI5, calls it a “sixth sense”. Without Leach and company, that sense will have to heighten still further.