Lyon turns to Test rival for spin tips

In his quest to find a bowling plan that proves as successful in Asia as it has been at home, Nathan Lyon has taken to closely studying the most successful of his contemporaries – India’s spin guru Ravi Ashwin.

Lyon is Australia’s premier spin bowler as shown by his record as the most successful Test finger spinner in his nation’s history, and through the pre-tour endorsement of his coach Darren Lehmann who described him as exactly that at the start of the current Qantas Tour of India.

But he was viewed in vastly different terms at the dearth of Australia’s disastrous 0-3 series defeat in Sri Lanka, where Lehmann and skipper Steve Smith identified Lyon’s limited impact as a key difference between the wildly disparate teams.

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Where the home spinners bamboozled Australia’s top-order batters to collectively take 52 wickets from three Tests, but Lyon, Steve O’Keefe (until injured) and his replacement Jon Holland managed less than half that haul (24).

The challenge issued to Lyon by captain and coach even before that campaign had reached its tortured conclusion was to fashion a method that made him as much of a threat as the home-grown spinners on Asian pitches.

To attack the stumps more regularly, to vary his angles of release and create doubt in the minds of opposition batters by perfecting a delivery that is an off-break in appearance but skids on straight in execution.

And to help achieve that ambition, in the six months between leaving Sri Lanka and arriving in India, Lyon has become a part-time student of the world’s premier off-spinner.

Who last week reached the 250-wicket milestone in fewer Test appearances (45) than anyone who has previously hit that mark.

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“I’ve watched a lot of Ashwin,” said Lyon, who has 228 wickets from 63 Tests, as Australia prepared for the major pre-Test training session in Pune today.

“Obviously he’s the number one bowler in the world and there’s a reason for that.

“He’s playing over in these conditions a lot, so I’ve spent a lot of time studying how he goes about it, so hopefully I can keep learning off him and watch him closely and try and put a few things into place.”

While Lyon was understandably reticent to publicly flag the changes he’s introduced and on which he worked extensively during the Australians’ pre-tour training camp in Dubai prior to arriving in India, he confirmed it did not involve a radical change to his bowling action.

He trialled some of them in the three-day tour match against a young India A at Mumbai last week, and took the first two wickets to fall with deliveries that had accomplished rival batters done for flight and spin.

But as the innings wore on, the 29-year-old became the target of belligerent stroke-play from 22-year-old double-century maker Shreyas Iyer and fellow off-spinner K Gowtham.

At which point Lyon reverted back to his faster, flatter trajectory and his figures blew out.

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It’s likely India’s even-more-accomplished Test batters will actively target the Australians’ number one spinner in the hope of forcing him back into his former habits.

But while conceding the alterations he’s embraced remain a work in progress, Lyon remains adamant he will be more a complete and potent threat than he was found to be in Sri Lanka.

“I’m not changing my whole action, I’ll give you that little tip,” Lyon said today. “But there’s little things I’m trying to work on.

“Some things are going really well and some things aren’t.

“But I’m feeling really confident and I’m looking forward to the challenge that lies ahead.”

The other surprise that Lyon might spring at some stages during the Tests in Pune (starting on Thursday), Bengaluru, Ranchi and Dharamsala is to fill the role of opening bowler.

A practice that Australia eschewed in Sri Lanka given the threat that Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood regularly posed with the new ball.

But which remains a live prospect in India where the home team is expected to toss Ashwin the new ball on a number of occasions, as much to exploit Australia’s known technical and mental frailties against spin as in deference to the state of the Test pitches.

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“There's a big chance I might take the new ball, but that's totally up to the captain,” Lyon said today.

“I'll be warming up (for it), put it that way.

“The new ball, the harder it is - it may skid on, it may turn, it might bounce or it might not.

“There's a few different options and if I don't know if they're going to bounce then neither does Virat (Kohli, India captain).

“We'll just have to wait and see.”