4th Test: Jack Leach to undergo surgery on left knee after being ruled out of India tour

Ranchi, Feb 24 (IANS) England’s left-arm spinner Jack Leach revealed that he will undergo surgery on the left knee, which he injured during the first Test against India and was subsequently ruled out of the ongoing tour.

Leach hurt his left knee while fielding on the first day of the Test series opener in Hyderabad, where he collided with the ground after diving to stop a boundary. On day two of the match, Leach aggravated the injury, which meant he picked a swelling on his injured knee and was unable to bowl long bowling spells, though he did bowl 26 overs in the first innings.

But Leach managed to bowl 10 overs in the second innings, and took out Shreyas Iyer as England secured a famous 28-run victory at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium. He missed the next Test at Visakhapatnam and was expected to be fit in time for the third Test at Rajkot. But it was decided during England’s break at Abu Dhabi that Leach won’t take any part for England in the remaining three Tests.

“I'm going to have an operation to get the rest of the swelling out because it's not budging. "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. 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," said Leach on BBC Radio 5 Live.

Leach, who suffers from Crohn’s disease, had just returned to Test match action after recovering from a stress fracture in the back which ruled him out of last year’s Ashes against Australia at home.

Following the end of Tests against India at Dharamshala on March 11, England's next assignment in the format will be the home series against the West Indies, starting at Lord's on July 10. Before this, Somerset, Leach’s county team, will begin their County Championship campaign in an away match against Kent on April 5.