Jack Leach: England bowler enjoying cricket after injury and new Somerset deal – BBC Sport

England spinner Jack Leach says he wants to play “as much cricket as possible” in all formats of the game after returning from injury for Somerset last month.

The 33-year-old, who has 36 Test caps and has taken 126 wickets for his country at an average of 34.40, signed a new two-year contract until the end of 2026 with his hometown club on Friday.

Leach, traditionally a white-ball specialist, returned to play for his county side in May for the first time in a year having been plagued by injury problems over the past 12 months.

He suffered a knee injury during England’s Test series against India in February that required surgery and missed the Ashes last summer because of a stress fracture in his back.

“Over the last five or six years it’s been all about red-ball cricket and how I can get on in Test cricket,” Leach told BBC Radio Somerset.

“Now is an opportunity where I feel like after injury I want to play as much cricket as possible, whatever format that is and really test my skills out.”

Leach has played three County Championship matches for Somerset this campaign and featured in only his second-ever T20 match for the club earlier this month in their defeat by Gloucestershire in the Blast.

“There’s things I can learn from the short format I can bring into the longer format and vice versa,” Leach said.

“I love learning more about the game and I’ve definitely got a lot to learn in that format.”

Leach has spent his entire career at Somerset, having been born and raised in Taunton and has made 162 appearances across first class, List A and T20 formats, taking 466 wickets.

He said the way the club have supported him through overcoming his injury and health troubles made it an “easy” decision to sign a new deal.

Yet the repeated setbacks have taken their toll. Leach has only played four Test matches for England in the last two years.

“It’s taken a lot of resilience and strength and understanding how much I enjoy the game and want to play and the reasons that I play,” Leach said.

“You do do a lot of soul searching and again I’ve got a lot people to thank, that have really supported me through that time.”

Leach also lives with crohn’s disease – a condition that causes inflammation of the digestive system.

In 2019 he contracted gastroenteritis, which developed into sepsis, while on tour with England in New Zealand, while he also missed a 2022 Test match for England with concussion.

Leach said his most recent injury had impacted his mental health at a time he was on a “real high”.

“The actual area you’ve injured is not the most sore thing, it’s what happens in your brain. What your paid to do you can’t do and that’s hard,” Leach added.

“It probably hit me at a time when I was on a real high as well.

“I’ve had my ups and downs throughout my career and something that I’m very aware [of] when you’re in an up there’s probably a not-so-good moment around the corner, and similar if you’re in a down hopefully things can improve.

“You’ve always got to hold on to that and stay quite level to it all.

“It’s very easy with the things that you go through to try and hide them, but I feel like it’s a bit of a duty of mine to be able to talk about them.”