Jack Leach's England career appears to be over after national selector Marcus North hinted that he is unlikely to win a recall for their upcoming Test tour to Bangladesh despite his strong form for Somerset.
Leach, 35, played the most recent of his 39 Tests in Pakistan in late 2024 and has not featured in an England squad since. He has been the standout spinner in Division One of the County Championship across the last two seasons, taking 88 wickets at 21.73 for Somerset.
But North indicated that he is unlikely to win a recall even in the subcontinent as England focus instead on the spinners who have won central contracts (Shoaib Bashir and Rehan Ahmed) and development contracts (Mason Crane, James Coles and Liam Patterson-White) for the 2026-27 cycle.
"We've seen him at international level with England. He continues to do exceptionally well at Somerset," North said on the Wisden Cricket Weekly podcast, when asked about Leach's prospects. "But as it stands now, those selections around the development contracts and the central contract list show that we're focusing on a slightly different direction."
Leach could yet come back into contention further down the line, with England due to tour India for five Tests in early 2028. But for the time being, he appears unlikely to add to his 142 Test wickets.
England did not select a specialist spinner in their first series since Ben Stokes' international retirement, relying instead on Dan Lawrence and Joe Root's offbreaks in their 3-0 win over Pakistan as Bashir carried the drinks. They are expected to operate with a similar balance in their next Test series, in South Africa in December.
North conceded that England's two-match Test tour to Bangladesh in February would "challenge the current balance of the side" and said that the ECB is investing more in its spin programme, citing Richard Dawson's recent appointment as not only one of Stephen Fleming's new assistant coaches but also England's national spin-bowling lead.
"They [Bangladesh] are a good cricket team now, a good Test team," North said. "It's not just going over there and facing good spinners; they've got some very good quicks, so we know that's going to be a good test. But we need to have a squad that can give us all options in those conditions as well.
"As much as there's been a project with fast bowling, you'll see that there's now a number of spin bowlers that have come into our system… that we can invest in," he added. "Where we want to get is to have the depth that we can have some really good, robust discussions around the type of skillset that we're looking for and the balance of the side."
England's main selection dilemma in South Africa appears to be whether Jacob Bethell's recovery from a knee injury will see Emilio Gay, Jordan Cox, Dan Lawrence or Bethell himself left out of the side, but North said no decision has been made at this stage: "It's going to be a tough call and tough decision, and that's exactly the place we want to be in."