Quicks have stolen the headlines but spin may yet decide who wins Border-Gavaskar series

Faced with the potential loss of the usually spin-friendly SCG Test, Nathan Lyon now has quite a job to catch up to the early impact made by star Indian tweaker Ravi Ashwin.

Boxing Day cricket Test Match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). Day 2. 27/12/2020. Nathan Lyon bowls. Pic: Michael Klein

The defining match-up in the Border-Gavaskar series might in fact be a bowler against a bowler.

In a series in which we have witnessed some of the finest fast bowling in recent memory, the side laying claim to the most effective spinner could be ultimately what separates them.

Who can tie down one end and allow the quicks to let rip from the other? Which tweaker can turn on the magic?

Approaching the halfway mark it is a distinct advantage to Ravi Ashwin against Nathan Lyon.

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Nathan Lyon has a mountain of work ahead of him if Australia are to win the MCG Test. Picture: Michael Klein

This series Ashwin has taken 8-106 (48 overs), an average of 13 runs per wicket.

Lyon has taken 2-120 (39 overs), an average of 60 runs per wicket.

Ashwin has made superhuman Steve Smith look more than mortal, boasting the astonishing figures of 2-0 against the master batsman from five deliveries.

Those numbers defy history. Before the first Test at Adelaide Oval, Ashwin had struck just three times from 570 deliveries bowled to Smith.

His strike-rate has gone from 190 to 2.5 this series. Smith’s average against Ashwin has gone from 116 to no runs.

It is worth noting that India’s great wall of Cheteshwar Pujara never looked comfortable against Lyon in Adelaide, and Lyon wasn’t even required in the second innings of that match.

Ravi Ashwin has even made superhuman Steve Smith look more than mortal for far this series.

But Lyon’s radar was slightly off on a day where he never really threatened.

Usually when Lyon has the ball the pressure sharply rises.

But at the MCG this wasn’t the case.

Then again, India’s batsmen were brought up facing orthodox spinners and so Lyon’s powers are perhaps a little diluted against them.

But the gameplans of Ashwin and Lyon were fascinating.

Here was Ashwin releasing from right in front of the umpire’s nose and spinning the ball down leg-side, where the field was stacked 6-3.

The cover region was vacant, but Australia’s batsmen didn’t dare hit there.

And then there was Lyon bowling wide at the crease and trying to turn the ball through the gate.

India threw Ashwin the ball after just 10 overs on day one, becoming the first finger-spinner used as the first change since Ravi Shastri in 1985.

Lyon had to wait 34 overs before captain Tim Paine gave him a second one, coming when players could sniff lunch.

Long regarded as a hometown bully who went to water once he reached for his passport, Ashwin has put the Aussies in a spin.

Lyon was far from the reason India boxed back at the MCG, but a tidier performance will be on Australia’s growing wish on day three.