Lyon hopes to repeat 2014 Adelaide magic
SYDNEY: With a match-haul of seven wickets that helped New South Wales beat Western Australia in a Sheffield Shield game in Perth this week, off-spinner Nathan Lyon warmed up for next week’s first Test against India at Adelaide, a venue where he scalped 12 wickets four years ago to upstage Virat Kohli’s twin hundreds and help Australia win the series opener.
This year Lyon has manfully carried an Australia weakened not just by the ball-tampering bans on batsmen Steve Smith and David Warner but also injuries to pacers Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins. In seven matches in 2018, he has scalped 32 wickets.
But with the Australian pace trio fit for the first Test, Lyon will find plenty of support from the other end and could exploit the pressure built by pacers on India batsmen.
“If I recreate that, it would be amazing,” Lyon was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au as he recalled the 2014 Adelaide Test where he took 5/134 and 7/152. “It was an amazing Test match. It was a different Indian side back then. But this Indian side, they’ve obviously got superstars right through from batting to bowling. I’m feeling very good.”
The 31-year-old has been successful in deceiving India’s batsmen since his debut in 2011. In 14 matches, Lyon has taken 64 wickets including five 5-wicket hauls and a 10-wicket haul.
With Australian cricket hit by the ball-tampering scandal, Lyon feels positive results against India can help in restoring national pride.
“We want to make Australia proud and the only way we will do that is by playing good competitive cricket and winning some games,” he said.
“If we can get back to the basics, and do the basics better than India do, hopefully results will go our way.
“As always, we will play to win and we will play positive, competitive cricket and have some fun doing it.
“It is a great game to play and there is nothing better than representing your country.”
‘TERRIFIC ATTACK’
Former Australia fast bowler Geoff Lawson believes the current India attack is one the best he has seen in a long time and will challenge the Australian batsmen. “They have got some terrific fast bowlers, as good a group as I’ve seen for a long time and they’ve got the spinners that always do the job,” Lawson said. “Ishant Sharma’s last time out here, he got extra bounce. Umesh Yadav bowls freak (deliveries), Mohammed Shami has been swinging it, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar swings it as well. “They are not going to play all four, they are going to play three and maybe one or two spinners,” Lawson said.