Australia’s record off-spinner Nathan Lyon hasn’t changed his mind: Jack Leach, not Shoaib Bashir, remains England’s most reliable slow bowler in his view – even with an Ashes tour on the horizon.
Speaking at a low-key Cricket Australia sponsorship launch in Sydney on Thursday, Lyon recalled a chat with long-time Lancashire team-mate James Anderson about England’s current plans.
“I obviously played with Jimmy Anderson last year at Lancashire, and they basically said that they’re picking Bashir to do what I do,” Lyon noted. “So I took a little bit of pride out of Jimmy respecting a little bit of what I’ve been able to do in my career. But Bashir has been okay.”
That last line – “Bashir has been okay” – sums up Lyon’s stance: the 22-year-old off-spinner, now nursing a finger injury, has promise but still sits behind Leach in the pecking order. Lyon went a step further, adding: “Jacob Bethell is playing this Test match [at The Oval against India], and he looks like he’ll take up the spin bowling from Liam Dawson. But in my eyes, Jack Leach is still their best spinner.”
Leach, 34, has not featured for England since the tour of Pakistan 12 months ago. His returns there – 16 wickets at 31.43 – were decent without being spectacular, yet they stacked up comfortably against Bashir’s nine wickets at 49.55 across the same stretch. Since then England’s selectors have doubled down on Bashir, using him as first-choice tweaker against New Zealand, Zimbabwe and India.
That vote of confidence met a snag at Lord’s this month when Bashir damaged a finger and was ruled out of the rest of the India series. Liam Dawson, back after eight years in the cold, filled the gap for the Manchester Test but was promptly dropped for the Oval finale, where England opted for four quicks plus Bethell’s part-time left-arm spin instead.
Leach, meanwhile, keeps stacking up county wickets. His 6 for 63 for Somerset against Durham came in a two-day match on a Taunton surface Ian Botham labelled “appalling”. Even so, Leach sits fourth on the Division One wicket list – and first among spinners – with 39 at 24.76, two six-fors included.
Memories of Leach’s previous Ashes trip hardly flatter him: three Tests, six wickets at 53.50, and omission from the pink-ball match in Hobart where Australia wrapped things up inside three days and Lyon never bowled a ball. That experience still colours some English thinking, but Lyon argues numbers alone don’t tell the whole story.
“He’s a clever bowler, a real competitor, and he understands how to hold one end,” the Australian said, praising Leach’s ability to give Ben Stokes control in the field. Those basics, Lyon believes, count for plenty on hard Australian pitches where spinners often spend long hours bowling into the breeze.
Bashir has already had a look at similar conditions. Earlier this year he toured with England Lions for three four-day matches against Cricket Australia XI and Australia A. The venues were practice grounds rather than major Test arenas, and his figures – 2 for 91, 1 for 109, plus an incomplete spell in Sydney – were workmanlike rather than eye-catching. Coaches spoke of his “shape” and “drop”, technical jargon meaning he gets drift through the air and bounce off the seam, yet they also conceded he still leaks too many release balls.
Analytically, the conversation is really about roles. England’s current regime wants a spinner who can attack with dip and overspin, a bit like Lyon himself. Leach’s stock-in-trade is accuracy, with fewer variations but more repeatability. The trick is finding the right mix on any given tour, and Australia in 2025-26 might call for two slow bowlers anyway if the schedule sneaks in a dry-season Test in Adelaide or Perth.
Former England off-spinner Graeme Swann, speaking on BBC Test Match Special this week, cut through the debate: “Pick the one who is bowling best at the time, it’s simple.” County form suggests that is Leach right now, although selectors like to future-proof and Bashir, still early in his career, clearly intrigues them.
For Lyon, the assessment stays straightforward. Leach beats Bashir for now; Bashir’s ceiling could be higher; both will learn from the next 12 months. “Healthy competition’s good,” he shrugged, acknowledging England’s depth. The coming winter – and the inevitable horses-for-courses chat that follows – will tell whether Lyon’s appraisal still holds when the Ashes start.
