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England captain Ben Stokes confirmed that left-arm spinner Jack Leach will miss the second Test against India in Vishakhapatnam, starting on February 2. However, the all-rounder hopes the 32-year-old will feature in the final three Tests.
Leach, who is the most experienced spinner in the current squad, skipped the training session on Wednesday. This came after he suffered a knee injury during the first Test in Hyderabad while fielding last month. The Somerset spinner bowled only short spells in the first innings and sent down only 10 overs in the second, taking the crucial wicket of Shreyas Iyer.
Speaking at a presser, Stokes said, as quoted by BBC Sport:
"The knock he took resulted in a haematoma. Hopefully, it does not keep him out for longer in the series. It's a big shame for us, especially after a long time out of the game with his back. Obviously, it's frustrating but it's something we're assessing every day."
With Leach out of the second Test, it opens the door for the debut of Shoaib Bashir. The latter reached India amid the opening game in Hyderabad after his visa fiasco. It remains to be seen how the spin-bowling unit of less than 10 Tests will cope against India.
"Everything we wanted in our spin group was answered by Bashir" - Ben Stokes
Stokes spoke about Bashir's selection for the five-match Test series. He said that the 20-year-old's height and the ability to produce natural variation along with revolutions on the ball made him a very compelling prospect. The 32-year-old said:
"I just saw something. The height he bowled from, it was very obvious that he put a lot of action, a lot of revolutions on the ball. It was something I looked at and thought 'this could be pretty good for India'. The height he delivers the ball from, the amount of natural variation that he can produce, is a handful out here.
"When it came to selection of the squad, there wasn't too much thought around him because everyone was very, very impressed with what Bash showed. Everything we wanted in our spin group was answered by Bashir."
England inflicted India's first Test loss in Hyderabad as they eked out an unlikely 28-run win on Day 4 while defending 230.
