Lyon puts a spin on story of pace dominance

Four years ago it was Mitchell Johnson striking fear into the hearts of England. Now Nathan Lyon is the man for the job.

Australian spinner Nathan Lyon at the WACA nets

Four years ago it was Mitchell Johnson striking fear into the hearts of England, and while batsmen probably don’t fear for their lives when facing Nathan Lyon, every indication is that the tweaker has similarly freaked his opponents.

The offspinner is the second highest wicket-taker of the series (11) behind Mitchell Starc (14) but has been judged by most to be the most consistently dangerous.

Former England captains Michael Vaughan and Mike Atherton and former Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara all believe the way for England to fight back is to take on the spinner.

“Nathan Lyon has been the surprise of the series because every time he’s had the ball in his hand I don’t remember him not having a spell where you thought, ‘Wait a minute he’s holding an end. Wait a minute he’s getting wickets’,” Vaughan said.

“England have to nullify Nathan Lyon. If they can nullify Nathan Lyon and get him out of the attack they might need the right-handers to do so, take a gamble or two. I don’t think the England players have taken enough of a risk against him.

“For instance, when you played against Shane Warne you had to gamble to try to knock him out of the attack or off his length. If you allowed him to bowl, he’d have you.

“I’m not saying Nathan Lyon is in Warnie’s category yet but he’s doing a similar job, so you have to gamble. Not one England player bar Moeen Ali and Jonny Bairstow once in Brisbane, have gone down town against him.

“I do think it’s worth the gamble of one or two of them saying, ‘we’re two-nil down, we’ve got nothing else but to come out fighting’ and it might be that they have to take more of a risk against Lyon.

“It might get more overs into the three quicks’ legs. They might play Mitchell Marsh here, which will add more to their attack, but they’ve got to try to get more overs into the legs of those three quicks.

“So every time at the minute I watch the quicks get the ball in the hand and they can rocket in because the spinner is doing a role at the other end. They’ve got to try and break up that play that Steve Smith’s producing by hitting Nathan Lyon a bit more.”

Atherton says that Lyon, who is the leading wicket-taker in the world this year, is “the fulcrum around which Australia’s attack now operates”.

“To get back into the series, ­England must find a way to combat the hold Lyon maintains over them, especially the left-handers, who have accounted for 10 of his 11 wickets,” he wrote in a recent column for The Australian and The Times.

Vaughan believes England need to adjust their batting line-up so the left-handers are not so exposed to Lyon.

Sangakkara also identified Lyon as the “key difference between the two sides” in a recent column and urged England’s batsmen to be more positive.

Joe Root acknowledges his side needs to change its approach to the Australian spinner.

“It’s that cat-and-mouse part of cricket,” he said. “You want to try and apply pressure as a batsman and get on top when the opportunities arise.

“Full credit to Nathan, he has made it very difficult for us to do that on surfaces which have offered good spin for him from the start.

“We have got to be ready for that here this week, it is not traditionally a place that will spin from ball one, especially if we bat first, but it might be that it will react differently to what we’ve seen previously. We have got to make sure that we are ready for that as a batting group and have a clear way to put him under a bit more pressure if we can and manipulate the strike better.

“We have to try and rotate things and not get stuck down his end, if we do that hopefully that will free the scoring up and take the pressure away from facing the other guys as well.”

Vaughan believes England underestimated Lyon when picking the squad.

“In hindsight, England probably don’t prepare their line-up for Nathan Lyon,” he said. “They probably nullified the three quicks and thought we all should be able to play Nathan Lyon.”