Nathan Lyon is regarded as one of the finest craftsmen of finger spin bowling in this generation. But Lyon managed to pick a solitary wicket after bowling 78 overs on the lifeless pitch of Rawalpindi, which was certainly not a great experience for the Australian spinner.
However, the interim coach of the Australian cricket team Andrew McDonald has backed Lyon with his whole heart for a turnaround in the second Test in Karachi, where the wicket is supposed to assist the spinners a bit more as compared to Rawalpindi. McDonald said that despite the track being one of the flattest ones for both seamers and spinners, Lyon tried his best to force a mistake and exposed certain areas of the Pakistani batters at times, which was commendable.
Given the class he possesses, Lyon can certainly be a useful weapon for the Aussies on a more helpful Karachi deck in the second Test. McDonald has also assured that the experienced Aussie spinner is physically fine after bowling these many overs in the first Test.
“He is physically fine, he bounced in and out of a lot of different plans and there wasn’t a lot on offer for the quicks or the spinners. Clearly, it wasn’t on his terms, and I thought the way he applied himself across both innings was admirable”, McDonald said. “There are not too many times you can keep Nathan Lyon out of the action in back-to-back test matches, so I look forward to him backing up in Karachi.
He is a quality bowler. I suppose the positive and negative is he doesn’t have too many back-to-back games like that so we look forward to him stepping up again next game in Karachi with probably some more favourable conditions.”, he further added.
On the other hand, Australia is likely to go with two spinners in the Karachi Test with Mitchell Swepson being the frontrunner in the race to be Lyon’s deputy. But the possibility of Ashton Agar getting a game can’t be completely ignored considering the heroics of Nauman Ali in his debut Test against South Africa at the same venue last year, where the left-arm spinner picked 7 wickets for 73 runs.