Ashes 2021-22: England using a mechanical bowling machine to mimic brilliance of Nathan Lyon

For all the talk of fast bowling dominance in the first Test, Nathan Lyon looms as a key player for Australia. But are the English batsmen ready for his tricks?

Nathan Lyon of Australia celebrates taking the wicket of Rishabh Pant of India during day five of the Third Test match in the series between Australia and India at Sydney Cricket Ground on January 11, 2021 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

Australia could face an Ashes backlash for an act of Covid chivalry after loaning England a “mechanical GOAT’’ to conquer their fear of Nathan Lyon.

For all the talk of fast bowling dominance in the first Ashes Test at the Gabba on Wednesday, England have identified Lyon as the man who must be kept on the canvas after his struggles against India last season.

Knowing they have no-spinner quite like him, the English asked Queensland cricket officials for permission to loan a special Merlyn bowling machine which can replicate Lyon’s challenging off-spin.

The machine, normally based in Brisbane, was taken to the Gold Coast for English training sessions and used to mimic Lyon’s deliveries including one in particular which triggers catches for close-in fieldsmen on the leg side.

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England believe if they can stop Nathan Lyon then they have a great chance to win back Ashes.

There have been eras where home nations would not be as generous but a sense of Covid chivalry has swept the sporting world and Australia has been at pains to ensure the English team were as happy as they could be in quarantine.

This is a massive Test for Lyon, nicknamed the GOAT, who has 399 wickets from 100 Tests and will become just the third Australian bowler after Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath to take 400 wickets with his first strike of the match.

English veteran Stuart Broad has openly admitted his team has underestimated Lyon, who has taken 19 and 21 wickets in his two Ashes series in Australia, and he must not be allowed to rise again after his struggles against India last season.

“We’ve studied what Hazlewood, Cummins and Starc have done for a long period of time and the role Nathan Lyon plays, I actually think he’s their key man,” Broad told News Corp.

“We’ve played Lyon in Australia very poorly for long periods of time. This is the series where that has to change.”

“He’s so consistent and it allows their bowlers to bowl the spells and overs they do.

“India played him really well and I think that helped play a key role in India winning that series, how they played him here.

Lyon, nicknamed the GOAT, sits on 399 wickets heading into the first Test.

Lyon enters the match under pressure after a modest summer last year.

“Our batters have to look at that. He’s someone who brings great control in the first innings (and can take wickets). We’ve got to play him better, there’s no getting away from that.

“We can’t put our heads in the sand and pretend we’ve played him well.’’

Lyon enters the match under pressure after a modest summer against India last season which netted him just nine wickets at 55.

He was left with the challenge of sticking with his reliable stock ball, which has been the bread and butter of his success, or adding variety in the expectation that batsmen are challenging him more.

“I have more belief in my stock ball than anything else in the world,” Lyon said.

“If you believe in it and think you can get anyone in the world out with it why go away from it?

“But in saying that this pre-season has allowed me to reflect on a different season and where I can get better. I have been able to experiment trying a few different things ...’’

England Men have named a 12-player squad for the first Ashes Test match at the Gabba starting on Wednesday 8 December.

The final XI will be confirmed at the toss.

Root (c), Broad, Burns, Buttler (wkt), Hameed, Leach, Malan, Pope, Robinson, Stokes, Woakes, Wood.

How JL’s stinging words turned Lyon into a tiger

Justin Langer these days treads a delicate path as Australian cricket coach but Nathan Lyon has no complaints about the day he dished out some raw, unvarnished truth.

“I remember it really well,” Lyon said. “Justin was batting coach for Australia and I had just played my 10th Test.

“He called me down to his room and sat me down and said, ‘The honeymoon period is over. You are Australia’s best spinner. We are now expecting you to win games of cricket for Australia’.”

“I went back to my room and thought, ‘Shit, I need to start finding this self-belief that the likes of Ponting and Hussey have.’ That presence and confidence to perform. That is where it started. I’m not saying I had that belief in my 11th Test match. But you grow. You go through experiences and learn.”

The search for self-belief. Finding a force. Mustering a mojo. Letting nous rule nerves. It has been the biggest challenge and triumph of Lyon’s career.

Nathan Lyon received some stern advice from Justin Langer early in his Test career. Picture: AAP

And it’s ongoing to this day with Mitchell Starc recently suggesting Lyon’s career included “86 debut Tests” in a playful gibe at his pre-match nerves.

Initially nothing came easily.

In the early years Lyon went back to his room many times and asked “am I good enough?” knowing full well Australia’s hierarchy was contemplating the same question.

He’s taken professional advice to look at old YouTube clips like how he knocked over India at the Adelaide Oval to lift his confidence in fragile moments and it certainly helped.

The night before he bowled Australia to victory at Edgbaston he couldn’t sleep so he went back to his NSW country roots and Googled “Rain on a tin roof”.

The soundtrack soothed him, he slept well, the Test was won and the next night he didn’t need Google to raise the same roof.

Sometimes during next week’s Gabba Test against England, Lyon, with 399 wickets from 100 Tests, should become the first Australian off-spinner to take 400 Test wickets, just as he was the first to take 300 and 200.

In fact, the true merit of his exceptional success is that of all the countless offies who have toiled away for Australia over the last 144 years the next most successful at Test level was Hugh Trumble who took the last of his 141 Test wickets 117 years ago.

Off-spinners are forever having to prove themselves, for they ply cricket’s easiest and hardest trade.

Anyone can bowl off-spin. It’s the craft you have a crack at when all others fail but becoming exceptional at it is one of cricket’s toughest challenges. Like winning Masterchef with a cheeseburger. You’d want to be good.

Australian off-spinners have been complaining for generations that our wickets don’t turn enough but here is Lyon’s lethal trick that explains his success. For him, they don’t have to.

Nathan Lyon needs one more dismissal to become the first off-spinner to take 400 Test wickets. Picture: David Gray/AFP

He worked out early in his career that instead of trying to rip his fingers across the ball and turn it like many others he would come over the top of it and create loop and bounce and take the pitch conditions out of play.

“I was about 18 and playing for ACT Comets and remember working with (Former SA off-spinner) John Davison – he was a big one for coming up the back and over the top of the ball. That was when I really nailed it.

“My skillset is realising I have to do something different. Go up the back of the ball and get it to bounce.’’

Since the incomparable Shane Warne retired in 2007 Australia has tried 12 slow bowlers, including eight who have played four or fewer Tests. Lyon’s bankability has been a godsend but he still feels Warne’s presence.

“I was also living in Shane Warne’s shadow. I still feel that. He is the greatest to have played the game.’’

Nathan Lyon will play a key role for Australia in the Ashes, which starts at the Gabba next week. Picture: Chris Hyde/Getty Images

This summer’s Ashes brings a special challenge for Lyon. India played him well last summer with a commitment to using their feet and it left him facing a crucial question.

Does he stick with his tried and true stock ball which has been his meal ticket for a decade or does he look for new tricks. He fell somewhere in the middle.

“I have more belief in my stock ball than anything else in the world,” he said. “If you believe in it and think you can get anyone in the world out with it why go away from it?

“But in saying that this pre-season has allowed me to reflect on different season and where I can get better. I have been able to experience trying a few different things ...’’

England beware. The cheeseburger with the newly created special sauce could be coming your way.

Ashes whitewash? Lyon’s bold declaration

- Ben Horne

Nathan Lyon has challenged claims Australia has lost its fear factor by declaring it can clean sweep the Ashes 5-0.

In an exclusive on codesports.com.au, spin king Shane Warne interviews modern day great Lyon on the eve of him taking his 400th Test wicket at the Gabba, and asks him whether England are still terrorised by the once daunting prospect of taking on the might of Australia down under.

Lyon said a “class” England will have confidence about what they’re capable of this summer, but still believes Australia can wipe them off the map.

“I think fear is a fear of failing. I think every sportsperson would have that fear of failing (but) the best in the world are able to go above that,” Lyon told CODE.

Nathan Lyon is confident that the Aussies can sweep England. Picture: Getty Images

“I think England will have some doubts because a lot of their senior players have been out here on tours before and they haven’t won a Test out here.

“If you look at the likes of Joe Root, Ben Stokes and these guys, I think they’re going to be confident, no doubt, but I think there’ll be some doubt in their minds (about) the Australian side and the way the Australian team go about their business here in Australia.

“So, I’m not sure if it’s fear because no doubt they’ll have their belief within their squad. But I know here in the Australian cricket team, we have the belief that we can come out here and win the Ashes and win it 5-0.”

Lyon was responding to Warne’s assertion that last summer’s loss to what he describes as “an Indian ‘C’ team” may have damaged the aura of the Australian team on home soil.

“(Since 1986-87 England) has only won six Tests in that whole period of time since. I believe in that (period) they thought, ‘we have to be at our best to compete against Australia,’” Warne said in the interview with Lyon.

“But seeing an undermanned Indian team – basically an Indian ‘C’ team – being bowled out for 36 (in Adelaide and then going onto win) at the Gabba for the first time in 30-odd years, I think a lot of the England team will say, ‘look a very undermanned Indian team can beat Australia.’ It’s given them belief and that’s why I don’t believe they fear the Australian team anymore.It used to be the hardest test in the world to come to Australia and beat Australia.”

In an intriguing interview between two all-time masters of their craft, Lyon reflects on standing on the precipice of 400 Test wickets – a milestone achieved only by precious few, including Warne himself.

Lyon will take it how he can get it, but knows who is dream wicket would be at the Gabba starting next Wednesday.

The Indian team celebrate a historic series win against Australia at The Gabba. Picture: Getty Images

“Hopefully the quicks do the job nice and early, if we end up bowling first, and they can make a couple of inroads,” Lyon said when asked to speculate on how he’d ideally like his 400th to pan out.

“But someone like Joe Root, that’s always a great challenge. I’ve loved bowling against Rooty. We’ve played a lot of Test cricket against each other, so someone like Joe Root obviously would be quite special.

“But to be honest with you, I don’t really care. I just want it to come and we can move on.”

When Warne and Lyon got down to talking about the nitty gritty of bowling spin, the Australian star they call ‘THE GOAT’ revealed he has some mystery balls lined up for England.

“Yeah I’ve been working on a couple of different types of balls to trap … English left-handers on the crease and hopefully hold them there a bit longer,” he said.

“I get the feeling the English are going to hang back to me and play me off the back foot probably a bit more than any of the other nations around the world do.

“That’s off the back of playing so many games against them.”