Leach replaces injured Crane for New Zealand Test series

Mason Crane has a stress fracture in his lower back and will return home early from England’s ongoing tour of New Zealand. Jack Leach, the left-arm spinner, will take Crane’s place in the touring party.

Crane, the 20-year-old leg-spinner, has played just the one Test, against Australia in Sydney earlier this year when he returned 1/193 from 48 overs as Australia won by an innings and 123 runs. He was picked in the first two-day tour match against New Zealand XI earlier this week but bowled just the one over, a maiden.

He underwent scans after the game, which revealed a partial stress fracture.

Leach, the 26-year-old Somerset man, has received his first senior England call-up as a result and will reach Auckland in time for the first of two Tests, starting on March 22.

One of the stalwarts in the English domestic circuit in recent times, Leach has picked up 116 wickets in the last two County Championship seasons, the best by a spinner in the competition, and has a total of 185 wickets from 54 first-class matches.

Leach and Crane were both part of the recent England Lions tour of the Caribbean, where Crane had a largely unsuccessful time, picking up just one first-class wicket. Leach, meanwhile, carried forward his strong domestic form, and even claimed the best first-class match figures by an England Lions spinner when he took 8/110 against Windies A in Jamaica, topping Graeme Swann's 8/156 against Zimbabwe in 1999.