Nathan Lyon is doing what even Shane Warne couldn’t manage - have the Indian batsmen under pressure every time they face him. With his bounce, sharp turn and relentless accuracy he has had Virat Kohli’s men in a spin.
The wicket at Perth’s new stadium is expected to favour pace, but Kohli and Co will be equally concerned about the threat posed by the Australia off-spinner, who took a six-wicket haul in the second innings of the Adelaide Test.
As India search for answers to negate Lyon’s threat, former India batsman Dilip Vengsarkar, who had a strong game against spinners, felt the best way to target Lyon will be to play between mid-off and mid-on.
“It will be safer to play him in the arc from mid-off and mid-on, lift him over mid-on when you get the opportunity and force him to push the mid-on back, which will open up the area for singles,” said Vengsarkar.
However, he was effusive in his praise of the spinner. “Lyon bowls that length where he makes you play on the front foot and pitches just outside off-stump; he is a big turner of the ball and extracts bounce, which makes him very dangerous because you don’t know how much the ball is going to turn. He is relentlessly accurate. You can’t drive him through the covers.”
Former India off-spinners Erapalli Prasanna and Shivlal Yadav, who both bowled with success on Australian wickets, advised India batsmen against trying any fancy shot in the bid to unsettle Lyon. “Paddle-sweeps and reverse-sweeps can be one-off, you can’t build your innings on that. However good you may be against spin or pace, if you are bowling well you will be successful, and Lyon’s percentage of good balls versus bad balls is 80:20. Our batsmen will have to grind and stay on the wicket,” said Prasanna, who took 31 wickets in the eight Tests he played Down Under.
{{/usCountry}}Former India off-spinners Erapalli Prasanna and Shivlal Yadav, who both bowled with success on Australian wickets, advised India batsmen against trying any fancy shot in the bid to unsettle Lyon. “Paddle-sweeps and reverse-sweeps can be one-off, you can’t build your innings on that. However good you may be against spin or pace, if you are bowling well you will be successful, and Lyon’s percentage of good balls versus bad balls is 80:20. Our batsmen will have to grind and stay on the wicket,” said Prasanna, who took 31 wickets in the eight Tests he played Down Under.
{{/usCountry}}Though Cheteshwar Pujara got a hundred and half-century, Ajinkya Rahane hit 70 and Kohli 30-odd, none looked in control against Lyon. Adelaide was not a one-off performance. Lyon simply loves to bowl against India. He has taken 72 wickets in 15 Tests with 38 wickets at home in eight Tests, the most against any opposition.
With Mitchell Starc in the team, Lyon becomes more effective as he gets to use the rough created by the left-arm pacer to extract uneven bounce. Going down the wicket to his flighted deliveries was a good ploy, but he put that bit of doubt in the Indian batsmen’s minds against that tactic by stationing a silly mid-off and getting Rohit Sharma caught there.
To his outside-the-off-stump line, reverse sweep is an option, but he has had the Indian think-tank thinking by having Ajinkya Rahane caught at backward point playing that shot.
Yadav said Lyon is irrepressible because he never stops attacking even when the batsman is on top. “He has a big heart, even in 2014 when Virat Kohli was attacking him (at Adelaide), he continued to attack, didn’t stop flighting and pitching on the off-stump.
Even if Lyon has a silly mid-off, batsmen will have to be decisive in their footwork and come down the track against him.”