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Indore: As he reckons with the possibility that a long Test career may eventually end without an elusive series victory in India, Nathan Lyon has a clear goal for the Indore Test - force the hosts to play more defensive strokes.
Over more than a decade, Lyon’s game plan has been a simple one: bowl his stock ball as well as possible, force batters onto the defensive, and reap the rewards whenever that forward prod is beaten.
Nathan Lyon appeals for a wicket.Credit:Getty Images
Based on the evidence of the first two Tests, Australia’s spinners, Lyon, Todd Murphy and Matt Kuhnemann, have some way to go to close that gap on India. According to ESPNcricinfo numbers, India’s batters have only had to play defensively to 40 per cent of balls bowled by Australia’s spinners. India’s tweakers have forced Australia to defend 52 per cent of the time.
Many of the shots in that 12 per cent differential have been bread and butter flicks to the leg side, allowing India’s batters precious opportunities to get off strike. It’s a method Pete Handscomb worked to add to his game after time with Ajinkya Rahane in the IPL.
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“All I want is to try to get the best batters in the world defending,” Lyon told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald in Indore. “It doesn’t matter who I’m bowling to or what conditions we’re faced with, whether we’re in Australia or here in Indore, it doesn’t matter.
“My biggest strength is getting guys on the front foot defending, and that will bring in both edges, pads, stumps, the whole kit and caboodle. It’s just about trying to get these guys defending as many balls as I possibly can.”
Lyon bowled better in Delhi than Nagpur, something he credited to a greater focus on persisting with his stock ball, the overspun off-break, to find lateral and vertical variation in pitches where the ball will turn more often than not.
But he acknowledged that, in Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel, Lyon has found a rare pair of left-handers who he has not been able to dominate. “I think what Axar and Jadeja have done is controlled their tempo of their innings really well,” he said. “They haven’t tried too much, they’ve stayed in their game plan and kept it very simple.