Why Nathan Lyon is better than Shane Warne in India: His dismantling of Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja shows why he is the GOAT

A bit of stat-churning would help. No overseas spinner has been as prolific in Asia as Lyon has been (122 at 27.50). No other non-Asian spinner has conquered India like he had either (53 wickets at 26). The subcontinent has been cruel on legendary spinners, their skill and reputation often buried in the dust and debris of this unconquerable shore. The great Shane Warne would readily attest—his nine Tests had yielded him just 34 wickets at 43. He could bargain just a sole five-wicket haul; Lyon already has five in the country.

Australia’s Nathan Lyon stretches during the second day of third cricket test match between India and Australia in Indore, India, Thursday, March 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Surjeet Yadav)

But statistics are just embellishments of his delightful craft, that has to be enjoyed over an innings than viewed as a highlights package. He rarely does magic balls; he barely makes batsmen twitch in the fear of an unplayable ball. He just chips away, gnaws away, testing the patience, teasing the technique, probing the wits. And when you have watched him through the course of an entire day, you emerge enlightened, even educated.

That the eight-for came on a turner should not diminish his art. Like batsmen would often say that even on a featherbed you still have to score the runs, spinners would vouch that even on turners they need to dig deep into their methods and acquired wisdom to emerge successful. Like Lyon did when he evicted Rohit Sharma. The latter was comfortably manoeuvring him through the leg-side, prompting worried faces from the Australian dugout that his middle-and-leg stump line from around the stumps was becoming predictable. A master spinner that he is, he didn’t alter his line, but rather changed his length. He gradually began to bowl fuller, not so much by inches as by millimetres, and then nailed him in front. In hindsight it could have been a trap, but that only Lyon could reveal. Sharma was his second wicket, after he had bowled Shubman Gill. This was a relatively easy wicket for him—the young Indian batsman telegraphing his intention to step down the track too early, but still Lyon had to be precise with the ball’s trajectory in that it beats him, which he unfailingly was.

Australia’s Nathan Lyon holds the ball as he acknowledges the crowd after taking eight wickets on the second day of third cricket test match between India and Australia in Indore, India, Thursday, March 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Surjeet Yadav)

Lyon has a knack of making dismissals look plain and simple. But often it’s not. The Jadeja wicket is instructive. He nailed him with a 95kmph ball that went with the arm, a variation he developed relatively late in his career. But in the prelude to it, he made him overbalance onto a ball that drifted deceptively into him. He then made one fizz past his outside edge after landing on middle and leg. Earlier, he nearly had Jadeja mistime a drive to short-cover like in the first innings. He took him out of his comfort zone, that is leaning forward and blocking. Jadeja is a less assured player of spin bowling on the back-foot than on the front-foot. In the end, he was neither forward nor back when Lyon zipped in the armer.

There was considerable plotting that behind the Pujara ouster too. First, he kept probing Pujara from around the stumps, his default line in the series. Benefitting from more consistent bounce, he kept whipping and driving him with a straight bat. He was careful not to play around his front-pad, thereby nullifying the leg-before threat. Lyon changed tack, bowling from over the stumps. Pujara ventured out of the crease and worked him for singles, through either side of the wicket. Later in the day, he returned to bowling from around the stumps and switched captain Steve Smith from first-slip to leg-slip for the first time in the session. Now, Pujara could no longer freely play the ball off his legs. But he could not resist the fatal glance, and Smith took an absolute blinder. Pujara was his sixth wicket, and he ripped a roar so loud that it could be heard in Bhopal.

Throughout the day, Lyon sustained his energy and intensity. There were times when his sidekicks Matthew Kuhnemann and Toddy Murphy got exhausted, when their mind and shoulders rebelled, when the ball would not obey their orders. But Lyon was relentless, and threatened the pads of the batsman like few others. The wicket-taking avenues from around the stumps for off-spinners are limited. It’s incredibly difficult to get bowled, you have to be pinpoint precise to get lbws, but Lyon had maximised the scope of this tactic. As revealed in the clever outwitting of Srikar Bharat, who was wary about repeating his first innings dismissal when he thrust his pad a tad across. And so, this time, he was pressing forward straight but this ball winked past him, with the angle, to crash into the off stump. On air, Gavaskar would coo “That was a great delivery”.

Australia’s wicketkeeper Alex Carey, left, celebrates with teammates Nathan Lyon, center, and Cameron Green the dismissal of India’s captain Rohit Sharma during the second day of third cricket test match between India and Australia in Indore, India, Thursday, March 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Surjeet Yadav)

That in a nutshell is Lyon, not much of a variation-wielder, but one capable of stretching the outer-limits of his own gifts.Perhaps, there is a bit of magic too. In how he reads the mind of batsmen, in how he always knows his field and his plans, whoever his captain. In how he imposes on batsmen, and managed to get inside a few heads, and in how he has remained relevant without layers of mystery or bag full of variations.

Apart from his exalted craft, he brings unbridled theatre too when he appeals. Hands aloft and shivering, like the branches of a tree in a tempest, on bent knees as if he is proposing to his beloved, eyes jumping out of the socket like a saucer, every vessel on his neck stretching, he literally implores. It is an event in itself, and if ever a statue of Lyon is sculpted, this could be the pose that embodies the essence of being Lyon. In the end, he was tired, but joyfully tired.