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With the SCG pitch helping spinners in domestic cricket this summer, Australia might have been considering two spinners for the third Test against Pakistan.
Not anymore, surely, after Nathan Lyon was mauled again yesterday.
The Australian off spinner is having a horrendous summer, averaging 67 with the ball from five home Tests against South Africa and Pakistan while conceding a lofty 3.75 runs per over.
Lyon yesterday was humiliated by Pakistan tailender Sohail Khan, who hit him for 33 runs from 20 balls. Despite averaging only 14 with the bat in his first-class career, Sohail treated Lyon with disdain, dispatching him for four huge sixes.
Pakistan bowler Mohammad Amir has also enjoyed facing Lyon, clattering him for 22 runs from just 18 balls in the past two innings. This continues a recent trend of Lyon being shown up by lower order batsmen.
In the opening Test of the summer against South Africa in Perth tailenders Keshav Maharaj and Vernon Philander hammered Lyon for 48 from 53 balls in the second innings. As I touched on yesterday, Lyon has tended to bowl too flat to the tail, seemingly worried about going for boundaries.
I have long been a fierce supporter of Lyon. Now, however, I cannot see how a case can be made for him playing at the SCG, when the series will likely still be alive. Pakistan are Lyon’s most feared team – he has averaged a whopping 113 in four Tests against them.
Their top seven consistently milk Lyon’s bowling, and now even Pakistan’s tail is dominating him.
I’m convinced Lyon would be sitting on the sidelines right now if in-form spinner Steve O’Keefe hadn’t suffered a calf injury last month. At the time Lyon looked like being dropped when he struggled against South Africa. Now O’Keefe is in action again and has bowled well in three Big Bash League games over the past nine days.
Both Nathan Lyon and Steve O’Keefe played in last year’s SCG Test against the West Indies, and together they snared six of Australia’s ten wickets in the rained-out match. In two Sheffield Shield matches at the SCG this summer spinners have taken 36 out of 64 wickets, which equates to 56 per cent, a whopping figure on an Australian pitch.
That said, it would still be an odd choice for Australia to pick two spinners at the SCG given how poorly Lyon is bowling and how well Pakistan play spin. O’Keefe has an outstanding record at the SCG, his home ground, having taken 54 wickets at an average of 22 in first-class matches at the venue.
Australia’s next Test series is in India, where spin will play a major role. Given only one more round of the Sheffield Shield will be completed before the Australian squad flies to India in February, it would be wise to offer O’Keefe some red ball practice against the spin-proficient Pakistan batsmen.
Not only is Lyon in a form trough but his skipper, Steve Smith, seems to have lost all confidence in him. The knock on effect is that Australia’s pace bowlers are being burdened with very heavy workloads.
O’Keefe’s accurate, frugal offerings would offer greater balance to a four-man Australian attack.