Nathan Lyon has an intrinsic understanding of pitches. It is a knowledge not just gleaned from the innumerable overs he bowled over the years. It is also an elemental bond forged through his formative years as a member of the ground staff at the Adelaide Oval. Hence, it was no surprise that when a pitch biased towards spin was laid out at Bengaluru’s M. Chinnaswamy Stadium during the second Test between India and Australia, it was Lyon, the Australian off-spinner, who flourished on the first day and ruined Virat Kohli’s best-laid plans.
The Indian skipper opted to bat and ended up one of Lyon’s victims as the home team was bowled out for 189 in the first innings. The 29-year-old’s eight for 50 was the best figures for a visiting bowler in India and the irony could not be missed — a spinner hoodwinking desi batsmen bred on a diet of placid pitches against practitioners of the slow art, all their lives. There were more surprises in store as Lyon became Australia’s highest wicket-taker (58) specifically against India and we are talking about a legacy that had legends like Dennis Lillee, Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne.
Why is Lyon a revelation?
It is a different matter that eventually India had the last laugh and fittingly another off-spinner — R. Ashwin (six for 41) — fashioned the host’s 75-run triumph. That still doesn’t dull the allure of Lyon’s opening day exploits. He may not have the larger-than-life aura that Warne reflected through a storied career, but Lyon, an efficient bowler fortified by a desire to do well against sub-continental players, has been a revelation. Asked about his motivation, Lyon told the media: “I love to play well against the best players. I just want to prove to myself that I am good enough and I can compete hard.” In the 22.2 overs he bowled in India’s wretched first innings, Lyon’s strengths were his ability to dry the runs, the way he quickly analysed the pitch’s pliability, and a metronomic manner of delivering the ball at one spot, much to the despair of Kohli and company. He lent some over-spin to the ball and extracted bounce, bringing the close-in fielders into play, but at the same time he was honest enough to say: “I don't know if they’re going to spin or go straight. So if I don’t know, neither does the batter really. I am about doing the basics really well. If I keep doing that, I’ll create chances and that’s what you have to do over here in India.” Not for him the proclamations of the ‘zooter’ and other jargons that Warne dished out in pre-match briefings.
India diffident against spin?
Lyon’s mastery over the Indians, at least in their first innings (the spinner failed to get wickets during India’s second dig), also revealed a recent fallibility that has plagued Kohli’s men. And it pertains to their diffidence against spin.
In a converse way, the obsession to prove themselves overseas against speed and swing, has often forced Indian batsmen to minutely observe rival fast bowlers and try and replicate age-old methods, be it in countering a bowling machine or getting a team-mate pelt tennis balls from close quarters on cement surfaces. The accent is on runs against the fast bowlers and playing spin has been taken for granted.
Against Lyon, the Indians were in no-man’s land. The footwork was tentative and even Kohli fell, offering no shot to a ball that struck his pads in line with the stumps. And when the ploy of dancing down the pitch was used, it was done more in hope as evident in Ajinkya Rahane’s dismissal. The Australian think-tank leans on Lyon as its primary spinner. If India reveals a hesitancy in preparing rank-turners for the rest of the series, it is a tribute to Lyon and his partner, left-arm spinner Steve O’Keefe.
K.C. Vijaya Kumar
