Ashes 2025: Nathan Lyon calls Jack Leach 'England's best spinner', rates England bowlers ahead of Australia Test series – sportingnews.com

Mayank Bande
Australia’s third-highest wicket-taker in Tests, Nathan Lyon is one of the greatest spinners in world cricket.
With 562 wickets in 259 innings, he sits just one wicket away from Glenn McGrath’s Test wickets tally ahead of the much-anticipated Ashes series down under later this year.
Lyon is one of the certainties in the Australian playing XI for the Ashes. However, the touring England side is still trying to find their best spin-bowling option to challenge the off-spinner in Australia.
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When discussing the best England spinners, Lyon has spoken highly of Jack Leach and termed him the best spinner in the country at the moment.
Speaking about England’s options, the 37-year-old feels the current lead spinner, Shoaib Bashir has only been ‘okay’ in the series against India.
During his stint with Lancashire, the Australian was told that Ben Stokes and co. picked Bashir to replicate what he does for Australia. However, Bashir is now ruled out due to a finger injury and remains a doubt for the Ashes tour.
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However, Lyon believes that Jack Leach is the best England spinner among the current bowlers, including Bashir, Leach, Dawson, and Rehan Ahmed, who are among the prominent names.
“I obviously played with Jimmy Anderson last year at Lancashire, and they basically said that they’re picking Bashir to do what I do. 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.”
“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,” he emphasized.
The 34-year-old Leach last played for England during their tour of Pakistan in 2024, where he averaged 31.43 for his 16 wickets on rather helpful spin-bowling tracks.
His counterparts, Noman Ali and Sajid Khan, took 20 and 19 wickets for 13.85 and 21.10, respectively.
Interestingly, after Bashir sustained a finger injury during the Lord’s Test, Leach was overlooked by the English management as Liam Dawson returned to the team for the Manchester Test.
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In the ongoing County Championship Division One, Leach is the highest wicket-taking spinner, with 39 scalps in 17 innings. He has 2 five-fers to his name and the best figures of 6/63 against Durham.
The left-arm orthodox bowler has played 39 Tests for Australia and taken 142 wickets, including 5 five-fers at an average of 34.07 and a strike rate of 66.2.
Mayank Bande has been a content producer at The Sporting News since 2023 and has extensive experience in cricket writing. His work has previously appeared on platforms like OneCricket and Last Word on Sports. Beyond cricket, Mayank closely follows football as an FC Barcelona supporter, along with tennis and Olympic sports. Despite holding a degree in Business Administration, he chose to pursue a career in sports, bringing sharp analysis to his writing as someone who once played cricket.

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