On Wednesday, if all goes well, Nathan Lyon, the man many consider the second-best spinner in the world at the moment, will play his hundredth consecutive Test, a first for a bowler; in all he has played 121 (Wednesday’s will be his 122nd). In contrast, Ravichandran Ashwin, the man many consider the world’s best spinner right now, has played just 92 Test matches. And his longest streak has been 36 Tests on the trot.
To be sure, Lyon’s
On Wednesday, if all goes well, Nathan Lyon, the man many consider the second-best spinner in the world at the moment, will play his hundredth consecutive Test, a first for a bowler; in all he has played 121 (Wednesday’s will be his 122nd). In contrast, Ravichandran Ashwin, the man many consider the world’s best spinner right now, has played just 92 Test matches. And his longest streak has been 36 Tests on the trot.
To be sure, Lyon’s record is a rare one -- apart from the confidence of his captains and selectors, his achievement is also a result of his fitness. Only five other cricketers before him have achieved this -- Alastair Cook, Allan Border, Mark Waugh, Sunil Gavaskar, and Brendon McCullum. And even the much longer list of those who have played 50 consecutive Tests (71 in all), has only one specialist spinner, India’s Anil Kumble who featured in 60 consecutive Tests.
For Ashwin, however, the contrast highlights what many cricket fans and experts consider a grave and repeated injustice: he often doesn’t find a place in the XI, set aside for lesser spinners or all-rounders who can ostensibly strengthen the batting. Even in the World Test Championship final at The Oval earlier this month, the world’s No. 1 ranked Test bowler according to the ICC, and the highest wicket-taker in the tournament, was left out as India lost by 209 runs.
Both Ashwin and Lyon made their debuts in 2011, within two months of each other, during a time when Australia and India were in transitory phases. Stuart McGill finally got a long-awaited step-up when Shane Warne retired in 2007 but he was already 36 by then. Nathan Hauritz was then given the nod ahead of Beau Casson, Jason Krejza, Cameron White and Bryce McGain, but it wasn’t until Lyon entered the scene that the matter of a worthy heir apparent to Warne was resolved. Ashwin, filling in the large shoes of Harbhajan Singh three years after Kumble had retired, made his debut after playing for MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings in a manner that matched his impressive first-class resume. He bolted towards success, becoming the quickest ever to 250, 300 and 350 Test wickets and bagging a record 10 Player-of-the-Series awards, only one less than Muttiah Muralitharan.
Though Ashwin’s indispensability can be gauged from how he has featured in each of the 55 Tests India have played at home since his debut against West Indies on a balmy November morning in Delhi, away from home he has been included only in 23 out of 60 Tests. And injuries make up for only a fraction of those missed Tests. More often than not, Ashwin has been excluded in favour of all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja to strengthen India’s batting even though Ashwin’s own batting average is a better-than-normal 26.97 for a bowler.
Lyon, on the other hand, has never been dropped by Australia since August 2013. This includes a rough 2014 where he was averaging 43 runs per wicket and striking every 73.6 balls. He was bowling marginally better the next two years but the lack of five-wicket hauls sticks out like a sore thumb. Yet, Australia, understanding first his potential and then his class, persisted with him.
“That’s something I’m really proud of,” Lyon has told cricket.com.au when asked about his impending achievement. “To be able to tick off 100 consecutive Test matches, that’s a proper stat in my head. That’s a lot of Test cricket, a lot of ups and downs. No wonder I’ve got no hair.”
The list of cricketers who have played at least 50 consecutive Tests is dominated by wicket-keepers, opening batters, some of the most decorated No. 3 and No. 4 batters, illustrious captains, four iconic all-rounders — Garry Sobers (85 Tests), Kapil Dev (66), Ian Botham (65) and Jacques Kallis (60) — two greatest fast bowlers Glenn McGrath (54) and Courtney Walsh (53), and Kumble (60) as the lone spinner.
To put this in perspective through sheer numbers, Ashwin has the better strike rate (51.8 to Lyon’s 63.3), better economy rate (2.76 to 2.93), better average (23.93 to 30.99), and significantly higher five-wicket hauls (32 to 23) and 10-wicket match aggregates (10 to 4) than Lyon.
Lyon surpassing all but five cricketers to reach this mark is exemplary testament to his endurance, skill, and perseverance.
But it wouldn’t have been possible without the unfettered support from a long line of captains and the larger administrative system at play beyond the field. For Ashwin, it’s not even certain if he will make it to 100 Tests. And if he doesn’t, what a travesty that will be.
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