Robert Craddock: Nathan Lyon cracks offie’s code on home soil
Champion off-spinners from around the world have come to Australia and failed, Robert Craddock investigates what makes Nathan Lyon so special on his home turf.
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History insisted it was not supposed to be like this.
India are supposed to arrive in Australia on red alert for our nations finest fast bowlers who traditionally own our cricket fields in the same way a pride of lions owns a prairie.
But suddenly, after two Tests, the tourists are forced into deep and significant discussions about another Lyon – Nathan – and how to play Australia’s off-spinner who has 16 wickets in the series.
And the truly disturbing news for India? He is yet to get a wicket you would classify as a genuine turner.
Extraordinary. Last time India toured here Lyon had his most productive series with 23 wickets and he is filling his boots again.
Australia is supposed to be the land where finger spinners are about as effective as a man firing with bow and arrows against a tank brigade.
One of the reasons Australia has developed a handful of champion leg-spinners over the years is because spin bowlers knew they needed the extra zip of bowling out of the back of their hand on minimal turning Australian decks.
The true merit of what Lyon has achieved in a career which represents 334 Test wickets, including 155 at 32 in Australia, is what has happened around and before him.
Before Lyon arrived no Australia offie had bettered the 141 wickets taken by Hugh Trumble who played his last Test more than a century ago and finger spinners who visited Australia often considered it the devil’s playground.
Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan was the world’s most successful bowler who took 800 Test wickets, yet in Australia he fed off starvation rations for 12 wickets at 75 in five Tests.
India’s flighty yet exceptional Harbhajan Singh took 417 Test wickets, yet just nine at 73 in Australia, while England’s Graham Swann took 22 at 52 in eight Tests here featuring much hard graft.
Only Lyon has truly cracked the code.
It seems by coming over the top rather than around the ball he gets drop and bounce which both confuses and confronts batsmen.
Kerry O’Keeffe once said of Glenn McGrath he was the most unremarkable, remarkable bowler in that for all his greatness, it was not as if each ball took the breath away in a Dennis Lillee-esque, blood and thunder sort of way.
You could say the same of Lyon. He is the least mysterious of bowlers in that he has no secret weapon, the doosra or the carrom ball.
And yet it seems every time he bowls a decent spell a wicket is just moments away.
India traditionally play spin well but there is a theory that when, a few years ago, domestic curators were ordered to leave a few millimetres of grass on home decks, the threat of spin bowling, and batsmen’s ability to play it, has declined.
Former batting great Barry Richards has watched the series with interest and feels India needs a tactical change.
“What is interesting is that most of them don’t use their feet against (Lyon),’’ Richards said.
“I don’t agree with randomly coming down the wicket but I think if you watch the ball out of his hand, he has one which goes flatter and one which goes higher. As soon as I saw the higher one I would be down the track.
“Virat Kohli has had trouble with him. If I was Kohli I would take guard on middle and off stump because Lyon bowls quite straight. Get down the wicket and work him to the leg side.
“You need him thinking about his length and changing his length. India are letting him dictate where he wants to bowl.’’
Think of that statement. India’s batting order are being pushed around by an Australian off-spinner. It is a remarkable effort in every way.
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