Most spinners don’t bother being hit for a boundary or two in the hope of picking wickets but veteran Australian spinner Nathan Lyon is happy when batsmen play defensively against him. Lyon, the best off-spinner to have played for Australia, took eight wickets for 64 runs as he troubled the Indian batsmen on the second day of the third Test on Thursday.
The 35-year-old, playing his 118th Test, has scalped 479 wickets and when talking about his approach to bowling, Lyon said, “It doesn’t matter on which wicket I am playing. If I can force someone to play defensively, I am very happy. The secret of my bowling is that I try to make the players ‘defend’ against me for a long time. It means that I am bowling in the right line and length. ,
Leone said, “It means that if the player tries to hit me with a big shot, I will not be in much trouble. Most sixes have been hit against me in Test history, so I am not afraid of getting hit. “He said,” It is a big challenge but it does not bother me. But the most challenging thing is that the players start playing defensively against you. ,
The great thing about his performance was that he took all the wickets with ’round the wicket’ bowling. However, some see this as a negative strategy. He said, “I know a lot of people consider it (round the wicket bowling) to be negative. But I see it quite the opposite. I think it is very aggressive. Lyon has always praised Indian batsman Cheteshwar Pujara who brings out his best against Australia. Pujara scored a 142-ball 59 and looked at ease in comparison to the rest of the team’s batsmen, while others struggled.
Lyon said, “He is an incredible cricketer. I have a lot of respect for the way he plays. Nothing can deter him, be it the bouncy pitch of Gaba or the spin-taking pitch of Indore. He finds his own way to deal with them. “He said,” Young players can learn from his way of batting. He doesn’t play reverse sweep or shots like that. But his defense is incredible. In my view, Test cricket is all about playing defensively. We saw his level of play once again on another challenging wicket.
