IND vs ENG Test series: England spinner Leach to undergo knee surgery

Leach hurt his knee twice while fielding during England’s first test victory in Hyderabad and the 32-year-old missed the last two matches where India bounced back to take a 2-1 lead in the series.

File Photo: England’s Jack Leach in action against Ireland | Photo Credit: Reuters

England’s Jack Leach will undergo surgery after a knee injury ruled him out of the ongoing test series in India, the spinner said on Saturday.

Leach hurt his knee twice while fielding during England’s first test victory in Hyderabad and the 32-year-old missed the last two matches where India bounced back to take a 2-1 lead in the series.

“I’m going to have an operation to get the rest of the swelling out because it’s not budging,” Leach told BBC Radio 5 Live.

“It was quite an unfortunate one. It was the second ball of the first innings in the field, so that whole game I was playing with this knee problem.

“I obviously knocked it a few times throughout that game and it has just created a long period of recovery. I need to get the operation done and then hopefully I can get back to playing cricket.”

England does not play another test series until the home summer when it hosts the West Indies in July, soon after the T20 World Cup, while his county team Somerset begins its new season in April.

“I’d love to have a run of playing cricket and getting into a bit of a rhythm again and hopefully that can happen again once I’ve got this sorted,” Leach added.

In Leach’s absence, Shoaib Bashir has stepped up for England in the first innings of the fourth test with figures of 4-84 so far as he ripped through the top order to restrict India to 219-7, trailing England by 134 runs.