The Ashes 2013: The 'Lyon' hearted performance slips under the radar

Nathan Lyon’s performance has been swept under the rug on far too many occasions by Australia

There were quite a number of eyebrows and many questions raised just before the beginning of the first Test at Trent Bridge when Glenn McGrath handed over a brand new baggy green to Ashton Agar.

“Ashton Agar, really?”

“Why was he in the squad?”

“Is Darren Lehmann trying to pull a fast one by blooding a 19-year-old?”

All sorts of reasoning ensued. Perhaps this was a memo for Kevin Pietersen who has had his problems against the left-arm spinners. Rangana Herath, Pragyan Ojha and even the “pie-chucker” Yuvraj Singh have caused trouble for the big man.

By the end of the second day, Agar was making headlines all over the cricketing world. Batting at number 11, he had smashed a free-spirited, record-breaking knock of 98. Even the Poms were captivated by his disarming smile.

With the ball though – his premier profession – he was, at best, steady. He did pick up two wickets on a wearing pitch in the second innings but quite clearly he was a work in progress; some harsh critics even went to the extent of saying that he undid the good work of the seamers.

Ashton Agar wasn’t as impressive with the ball as he was with the bat

In the second Test at Lord’s, his dismissals made him look more like a tail-ender with the bat – a typical mix-up with the partner followed by an edge to the keeper to a ball angled across him – and he was out-bowled by the part-time spinner Steven Smith. The novelty had worn off, and after registering another score of 98 – 0 for 98 in 29 overs in England’s second innings – he was dropped from the team for the third Test.

All this while, as the Australian cricket followers were getting used to the highs and lows of Agar, Nathan Lyon, supposedly Australia’s lead spinner, was left sulking, perhaps beset by a sense of betrayal.

It also didn’t help that the most consistent of the dozen or so Australian spinners since Shane Warne, Lyon, in his last Test against India at Delhi, had finished with a career best 9-wicket haul, including a seven-for in the first innings.

With an average of 32.40 in 24 Tests, Lyon isn’t one to give sleepless nights to Test line-ups, but he has been decent with his efforts. He is a bowler in the classical mould who has no air of mystery surrounding him. To take wickets, he has to outfox the batsmen with his flight. His guile and subtle variations with the length are his sole allies.

Lyon lacks his captain’s trust

But what has hampered the honest off-spinner the most in his career so far is the fact that he lacks his captain’s confidence.

The exclusion in this series was the second time this year that Australia had asked their lead spinner to warm the bench. After MS Dhoni took him to the cleaners in the Chennai Test, he was dropped from the playing XI for the Hyderabad Test to accommodate Xavier Doherty and Glenn Maxwell, both of whom can be described as stop gap operators more suited to the limited-over variant of the game.

With 84 wickets, Lyon averages 32.40 in 24 Tests for Australia so far

According to the team management, that was done to help Lyon regain his confidence as well as to bolster the Australian batting line-up. It was conveniently overlooked that before Dhoni’s assault, Lyon had produced a dream delivery to sneak through the drive of a well set Sachin Tendulkar and rattle the stumps. India promptly took advantage of the move and cantered to an innings victory.

In the current Ashes, he was recalled for the Old Trafford Test where, bowling with the cushion of a big first innings score, he started off well. There was some purchase on offer from the pitch, and he kept a tight leash on the English batsmen. But after sizing him up for a while, Pietersen danced down the wicket and deposited him twice in the stands to raise up his half-century.

Clarke initially did the right thing by not dropping the fielders back on the boundary, daring Pietersen to repeat the act. But when the usually reticent Ian Bell followed suit, the Australian skipper gave in and Lyon was withdrawn from the attack. Just when the contest was shaping up to be a classic, Clarke betrayed his lack of faith in the offie.

At Chester-le-Street, Pietersen once again looked to take the attack to Lyon. But this time the off-spinner was allowed a longer spell and on the strength of his slight fluctuations and unerring accuracy, he flummoxed the English middle-order. Bowling from around the wicket, he bowled a probing line to have Jonathan Trott caught at short-leg before an arm delivery found Pietersen’s outside edge. Bell was lured into an ill-advised attempted hit over the infield and Bairstow was trapped in front of the stumps on the sweep.

In the second innings, Pietersen, smarting from his earlier dismissal, looked to play Lyon exclusively on the leg-side. But the spinner outfoxed him with a change in pace to get the leading edge. With his seven-wicket haul in the match Lyon served yet another notice to the team management about his abilities.

Lyon took 7 wickets, two less than Ryan Harris in the fourth Ashes Test but didn’t feature in Clarke’s ‘Positives of the Match’

After Australia slumped to their seventh defeat in their last 8 Tests, Clarke did little to hide his disappointment and spoke about taking positives from the match. The superlative efforts of Ryan Harris and the opening partnership between Warner and Rogers during the chase were mentioned and Lyon once again slipped through the radar.

As another fairy-tale story of Pakistani-refugee-turned-Australian Fawad Ahmed unfolds elsewhere, it is still not certain if Lyon, despite a brilliant show, will feature in the Australian XI when the next Ashes series gets underway later in the year at Brisbane.