Jack Leaning’s bowling has helped reignite Kent Spitfires’ One Day Cup campaign - but the skipper still finds it difficult to bring himself on to bowl.

The affable 29-year-old has proved himself more than a part-time spinner in victories over Surrey and Middlesex, reeling 10 overs off at the top of each innings to return figures of 0-37 and 2-36.

It’s set the tone for two victories which have boosted holders Kent’s chances of reaching the knockout stages.

“It sounds a bit ridiculous having bowled 10 straight through in the last two games but I find it very difficult to bowl myself as a captain,” said Leaning.

“But if I can get through overs at the start in a tough period, it certainly gives our front-line spinners much more freedom to bowl during the middle overs.

“There’s a couple of times where I was going to take myself off, and was encouraged to carry on bowling as it was going nicely. We just kept taking wickets at quite regular intervals and it just happened in the last few games there’s been a few left-handers so it’s been a decent match-up for me to carry on going.

“It’s something I took on in T20 a lot in the last year or so, predominantly this year, and it’s something I feel like I’m getting better and better at.”

Leaning has 28 first-class wickets to his name, 12 in List-A cricket and 21 in T20s.

The sight of him bowling regularly might be new to followers of the county circuit, but it’s always been something that he’s worked on.

“I’ve got 61 professional wickets now,” said Leaning. “My target was to finish with 100 but if things carry on as they’re going hopefully it will be a few more.

“It's something I’ve always worked hard on but it’s something I’ve had more of an opportunity to do at Kent.

“Obviously at Yorkshire, we had frontline spinners in Adil Rashid and Azeem Rafiq quite a lot early in my career and then the likes of Adam Lyth tended to bowl the part-time overs in red and white ball cricket.

“There just wasn’t quite the opportunity for me to do it at Yorkshire. At Kent, bowling quite nicely and producing results has just encouraged me to do it more and more. I’d like to think that I’m slowly starting to become an all-rounder in white-ball cricket.

“I’ve practised a lot at it. I’ve bowled an incredible amount of overs in the nets, regardless of whether I was doing it in a game for Yorkshire or not.

“It’s something I’ve always worked at here, even if I’m not scoring runs, I can still be an asset with the ball or in the field so it’s just another string to your bow and gives you more opportunity to be selected in the team if maybe your main asset is not going as well as it could be.

“If I can affect the game in all parts of it then it gives something different to the team. Ultimately, I just want to contribute to winning games, I don’t care if it’s bat, ball or field.”

Leaning also talked about the different variations of his bowling, which includes hiding the ball behind his back, in similar fashion to Surrey’s Sunil Narine.

They were part of the same squad at the Oval Invincibles during last season’s Hundred competition.

“It’s just a bit of mystery,” explained Leaning. “It gives me the option to bowl a few different variations without the batter seeing how I’m holding it.

“I’m not going to pretend that I’m anything like the great man. I spent a little bit of time with him in the Hundred last year, so picking his brains on the balls he bowls and the things that he can do.

“I’m just trying to implement some subtle changes into my game that can maybe just give me a one per cent advantage. If it creates a bit of doubt in the batter’s mind that what I’m going to bowl might be something different, it’s just nice to have that in my favour.”

Batting remains Leaning’s main asset, though, and it’s no surprise that he’s also scored half-centuries in Kent’s two most-recent victories.

For such a classy batsman, Leaning has been disappointed with his relatively low return so far this summer.

“It’s just been one of them years when I’ve had a lot of starts, it’s not like I’ve been getting out early,” he added. “It’s been across the board, I’ve had a lot of 20s to 40s which has been frustrating really.

“In the last couple of games, I’ve almost had that kind of freedom and been thinking I’m just going to try and score the whole time and just take it on a bit.

“It’s almost that slightly care-free attitude and it’s just loosened me up a little bit to play the situation and play what’s coming down as opposed to getting too wrapped up in how my own game’s going.

“Hopefully I can keep my own form going and get some big hundreds towards the back end of the competition and contribute some big scores in the Championship as well.”

Leaning has also been able to bat with a clear mind rather than be weighed down by the added responsibility of captaincy.

“I don’t really think about it when I bat, I just try to be Jack the batter really,” said Leaning.

“I like to think that my attitude and the way I play the game sets that leadership example anyway without having to do anything different.

“Captaincy is something I’ve really enjoyed, there’s obviously the trials and tribulations of it when things don’t go really well, you make mistakes or the wrong decisions.

“It’s something I’m always learning at, I certainly don’t claim to know all the answers so I’m keen for the boys to give me feedback and ask for advice throughout the team.”