Injury forces Mason Crane out of England's tour of New Zealand, with Jack Leach his replacement

Leg-spinner Mason Crane is to fly home from England's tour of New Zealand because of a stress fracture of his lower back, and will be replaced by Jack Leach.

Crane, who made his Test debut in the final Ashes Test in Sydney in January, rejoined the squad this week but was unable to take the field in either of the back-to-back tour matches in Hamilton.

Slow left-armer Leach joins his first senior England tour, for a two-match series starting in Auckland next week, having been the leading spinner in County Championship Division One over the last two seasons with 116 wickets for Somerset.

The 26-year-old was on the brink of a mid-tour call-up for the 2016/17 Test tour of India, only for that plan to be scuppered when it was discovered he would have to remodel his suspect action.

Live Test Cricket

This winter, Leach hit form again in England Lions' tour of the Caribbean, taking 18 wickets in a 3-0 series defeat against West Indies A, including a Lions record match haul of eight for 110 in Jamaica last month.

Adil Rashid would have been the like-for-like leg-spin replacement for Crane, but the Yorkshireman's status is complicated after he announced last month that he had signed a white-ball only contract for this summer with his county.

Watch England take on New Zealand in the first of two Test matches live on Sky Sports Cricket from 12am on Thursday, March 22.