sport news NASSER HUSSAIN: Under-fire spinner Jack Leach should get a good go before ... trends now
Any English spinner playing at home has my sympathy. The first two Test pitches this season have not offered them much and that is typical of how it is these days.
For long periods of a Test in England, the spinner fills a holding role and it can almost be like England are taking on the opposition with 10 players. The spinner might only come into home Tests later.
Headingley, where the series against New Zealand finishes, is no exception. It can be flat and the spinner has the containing role before it starts to do a bit by day four.
England spinner Jack Leach (above left) has had a difficult time of it recently in Test matches
England have sometimes left their spinner out in Leeds, even Graeme Swann in 2012 when Kevin Pietersen was given the role and actually took wickets against South Africa.
Jack Leach does look certain to play on Thursday but, having said he has my sympathy, the one thing he does have to develop is that over-spin and drop on the ball, coupled with variations in pace to deceive the batter before it lands.
He was brought up on turning pitches in Taunton — and I have no problem with turning pitches — but he only had to jab the ball in at a certain pace and the pitch would do all the work.
But get on a flat surface and you have to deceive, as Swann learned to do when he moved from the turning pitches of Northamptonshire to Trent Bridge.
Look at Nathan Lyon. He bowls on flat pitches in Australia with a Kookaburra ball but he gets a lot of over-spin and drop so that when batters try to get forward the length can be a bit shorter than they think and they can get into trouble.
The recently 'unretired' Moeen Ali (pictured) has been suggested as a replacement for Leach
Graeme Swann says Leach is rhythmical but does not drive his back thigh through his action
We were fortunate to have Swann in the Sky commentary box at Trent Bridge and I asked him about Leach. Swann says the left-armer is rhythmical but does not drive his back thigh through his action so his arm speed is not that quick.
One of our greatest spinners reckons that if Leach improved this it would force him to rotate more at the
