Nathan Lyon at 100 tests
Only the 6th spinner to play 100 tests in the history of the game
The ongoing Brisbane test is the 100th test for Australia’s front-line spinner Nathon Lyon. This current Australian line-up is one for the ages with Pat Cummins averaging a touch over 21 for his 150-odd wickets, Josh Hazlewood has 200+ scalps under 26 and Michelle Starc getting a wicket every 27. Two of those three take a wicket in less than 50 balls. So a cursory glance at Lyon’s average of 31.98 and strike rate of 64 might make people think he isn’t in the same class as the others, but that is far from the truth.
Bowlers rarely play 100 test matches. In fact, Lyon is the 68th player to do so and only 16 of them have been bowlers. Only 6 of these 16 are spinners. At 100 tests, Lyon has the 7th highest wickets tally and only 1 (Murali) of the 6 spinners have struck as often as he has (although Warne was an exception who improved his SR after 100 tests). If you look at bowlers, whose bowling skill (like pace for India) wasn’t their country’s main strength, there are only 2 other players in this elite group - Shane Warne and Kapil Dev.
After getting noticed while he was working as a groundsman, Nathan Lyon debuted for Australia after playing only 4 first-class games. Since his debut in Aug 2011, only a handful of non-Asian spinners have picked up 50 test scalps while Lyon is inching towards 400. Among these spinners, the only spinner who can be compared with Lyon is England’s Graeme Swann, a very fine spinner himself (although Shane Shillingford had great numbers in his brief career as well).
Spinners often get rated on the basis of their performance in Asia against batsmen who are very good players of spin. When we look at non-Asian spinners and their records playing against India, Pakistan (UAE games included), and Sri Lanka - Lyon is once again in the similar company of Shane Warne and Graeme Swann (ignoring Benaud since he played at a different time). People could argue that England’s Ashley Giles and Monty Panesar averaged better than Lyon - but a closer examination reveals that his record in both India (avg 30.5, sr 51.7 over 7 tests) and Sri Lanka (avg 33.5, sr 62.2 over 6 tests) is quite solid. The only disappointment for Lyon in Asia is his performances in 4 tests in Pakistan’s stronghold UAE, which makes his overall numbers in Asia look worse than they are.
Of course, when compared to Asian spinners in these matches, he definitely comes up second best. But those spinners bowling to Australian batsmen in familiar conditions definitely have an upper hand compared to Asian batsmen playing in home conditions. In fact, when we look at spinners bowling in Australia (min 10 wickets), you realize that the only spinner who averages less or strikes more often than Lyon is Ravindra Jadeja (he has only 4 tests). Quality spinners like Ravichandran Ashwin and Rangana Herath have continued to be out bowled by Nathan Lyon in Australia and the current series is certainly an exception.
All in all, if there is a chunk in his armor, it is the fact that his 4th innings average (30) and strike rate (60) aren’t substantially better than his overall numbers. In fact, in the last 11 tests for Australia - they have twice (Leeds v/s England, SCG vs India) been unable to bowl out a team on the last day, and obviously, Lyon has been on the receiving end of a lot of criticism. But even in those two scenarios, he wasn’t helped by his captain’s poor referral skills and some dropped catches.
Therefore, Nathan Lyon is not just Australia’s greatest off-spinner in test cricket, he is also their best spinner since Stuart MacGill and Shane Warne.