Lyon set to eclipse Warne’s record

The former Adelaide Oval groundsman needs just one wicket in the pink ball Test to pass another milestone held by the legendary legspinner.

Shane Warne and Nathan Lyon hold the joint record for the most wickets at Adelaide Oval Picture: Getty Images

Pat Cummins spent the day with the physio, Mitch Starc and Josh Hazlewood walked off their soreness on the golf course and the man who’d bowled more overs than all of them in Perth, Nathan Lyon, answered questions about moving past Shane Warne as the bowler with the most wickets in Adelaide.

The Australians are up against it as they scramble to prepare for Thursday’s pink ball Test against the West Indies at the picturesque ground.

There are opponents and Tests lined up around the block and into the distance.

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Dean Elgar’s South Africans are in Brisbane waiting for next week’s series and – unlike the home side – have the luxury of a four-day warm-up match against an Australian XI at Allan Border Field from Friday.

The Australians swung straight from white ball cricket to the longer format and have five Tests in six weeks. It will be something of a miracle if the quicks get through that schedule and foolhardy to risk one such as Cummins should there be any doubt at this stage, although the medical opinion is that a quad injury is ­unlikely to be exacerbated and usually lasts a week.

Cummins spent the day getting treatment – ice and strength work – on the injured muscle and is confident of playing. He says he would have bowled on the last of the five days in Perth if needed.

Scott Boland will play if Cummins does not recover from the thigh strain, with Michael Neser as cover for Hazlewood and the exciting West Australian Lance Morris in line to be substituted to the side in should Starc not make the team.

If Boland’s 18 wickets at an average of 9.55 from the three Tests he has played aren’t enough indication of his talent, Lyon provided the insight that he “hits me on the pads for fun when I play against him in state cricket”. Lyon added: “His skill sets always been at the top. But what I see in Scott now is, his confidence level has gone up and so it should have, he’s a world class bowler.

“He’s had a limited taste of world class cricket, but when he has had his opportunity he’s done really well. He’s one of the nicest, most humble blokes around and it’s really good to see his shoulders go back.”

Lyon says his friend and former boss Damien Hough, the ­curator at the Adelaide Oval, might have had a hand in the MCG wicket on which Boland took 6-9 last year.

“That wicket was pretty similar to an Adelaide wicket … I’m expecting similar things with the pink ball if Scott gets the opportunity,” he said.

That’s bad news for the opposition, given Boland’s efforts on the Melbourne wicket.

Lyon encountered Morris in Shield cricket earlier this season and says he will be avoiding the tearaway in the nets. Only Marnus Labuschagne or Steve Smith would be volunteering for that experience, he said.

Nathan Lyon bowling with the pink ball at training on Tuesday Picture: Getty Images

Lyon has 56 wickets from 11 Tests at the Adelaide Oval and will go past Warne, who had 56 from 13, should he make a single breakthrough in this Test.

The off-spinner says it is the combination of moisture in the wicket and the amount of grass that Hough leaves on it that makes it so good for his bowling.

Coming off a six-wicket haul to close out the first Test, he is well set for more scalps on a ground where he took 12 wickets against the Indians in 2014 and 5-69 in the last innings of the 2019 game there against Pakistan. “You talk to the batters and some batters say they find it hard to pick up the seam at night when they are batting,” Lyon said.

“Potentially (I) bowl a few more variations, simple things like cross seam and all that stuff to try to keep them guessing, but to be honest with you; pink ball, white ball, red ball, it is all pretty similar when bowling finger spin.”

Smith now has 51 catches off Lyon and the pair are now level with the record set by the wicket combination of Warne and Mark Taylor.

“It’s something we are both ­really proud of and to have someone at first slip like Steve for 90 per cent of my career has been pretty special,” Lyon said.

“I’ve got a lot of confidence in having Smithy there and he gives me a lot of feedback on different paces and how my shape is looking. It’s unbelievable to have conversations like that.”