Jack Leaning’s current working relationship with Jason Gillespie at Yorkshire is likely to end before long but it would be no surprise to see them together again in England colours.
The 21-one-year-old batsman is on a long list of players handed their first-team chance by Gillespie during his three and a bit years in charge at Headingley and he has repaid that faith in bucketloads this summer.
Born just up the M5 in Bristol during his father Andy’s spell as a Bristol City goalkeeper, right-handed Jack has proved arguably one of county cricket’s two most promising youngsters this summer alongside his former team-mate Ollie Robinson, now with Sussex. Here, Leaning scored his second Championship hundred in five matches in 2015 and underpinned Yorkshire’s healthy position in a match which started with them being invited by Somerset to bat.
Since he broke into the side regularly last summer, hitting 99 in a draw against Sussex at Arundel, his ability to score important runs has been noted by Gillespie and the rest of the Yorkshire hierarchy have praised Leaning’s ability to score important runs and this 123 off 243 balls was a perfect example.
Although there was not much help on offer for Somerset’s all-seam attack, the tacky pitch proved tough to get going on. Jonny Bairstow throughout the afternoon and the unbeaten Tim Bresnan after tea defied that notion with aggressive half-centuries but Leaning took his time to settle before playing some eye-catching strokes, mainly through the off-side.
He reached his fifty off 112 balls and his hundred, following on from one at Trent Bridge last month, off 192 after tea, sharing stands of 93 for the fourth wicket with Bairstow, from 118 for three, and 117 for the seventh with Bresnan. Somerset’s best period of the day brought them three wickets inside nine overs either side of tea and a near half-hour rain delay as Yorkshire slipped from 211 for three to 225 for six in the 68th over.
Included in that were the wickets of Bairstow caught at second slip off Craig Overton, who also had the four-day debutant Glenn Maxwell caught at cover two balls later. During the Leaning and Bresnan partnership Bresnan hit the day’s only six when he flicked Overton off his legs into the temporary stand in front of the dressing rooms, where a spectator was hit on the head. He was due to go to hospital as a precaution only.
Although this was Yorkshire’s day, Somerset were handed a late boost with two more wickets in three balls as Leaning was bowled by Peter Trego in the penultimate over of the day and Liam Plunkett trapped lbw by Alfonso Thomas two balls into the last. While Gillespie responded to a question about his England situation with a “no update, mate”, Leaning added: “International cricket is an ambition of mine but at the moment I’ll concentrate on keep trying to pack the hundreds on for Yorkshire.”
