Jack Leach credited a more attacking “new mindset” while bowling under the leadership of Ben Stokes with his “special” maiden Test ten-wicket haul.
Leach added five for 66 to his first innings five for 100 as England moved towards another memorable victory in the Third Test against New Zealand at Headingley.
They enter the final day needing just 113 more runs with eight wickets in hand, thanks to Joe Root and Ollie Pope’s unbeaten stand of 132.
Leach said he had focused on bowling more aggressively after a quiet Test at Trent Bridge on his return from a concussion suffered at Lord’s.
“I think especially in this innings I felt like I was bowling more attacking,” he said. “I felt I needed to put more on the ball and find the right pace and the right length, and you have to be really precise with that with the field so attacking and that was a really good thing.
“In the past I might have felt I need a bit of protection to bowl attacking and that worked really nicely. The way we’re going about things, which is credit to Stokesy and Baz [coach Brendon McCullum], is always taking the positive option.
“That third innings when they’re in the lead it would have been easy to drop guys out and make it a little bit easier for them and Stoke is going out the opposite way which is brilliant, and it gives me a new mindset which is trying to take wickets, working towards modes of dismissal, a bit more precise and specific with what I want to do rather than just bowling it.
“I just feel like I’m in a place where I can bowl that bit quicker but still with shape on the ball, whereas before it might have been quite flat, not much on it, with that pace.”
Leach says McCullum and Stokes’ approach has changed the way he looks at Test cricket.
“There’s just a great atmosphere in the dressing room, and this kind of positive way of doing things,” he said. "I think you kind of realise in the long format of the game where teams I’ve played in, the way I’ve thought, a lot of the decisions are made around negativity and actually this new way if you like is positive and it feels like you can give up prob a lot of four five day games you give up on the win quite early in the game potentially whereas it feels you’re always pushing for that win, so it’s never really too bad a situation.”
