Root takes full advantage of Australia’s Lyon-shaped hole

3 months ago 15

Brisbane: Joe Root might easily have made a hundred in just his second Test match in Australia had it not been for Nathan Lyon.

At Adelaide Oval in December 2013, a 22-year-old Root fought his way to 87 against Mitchell Johnson, Ryan Harris and Peter Siddle, only to squeeze a bat pad catch off Lyon just when it looked like he was destined for three figures.

Finally a century for Joe Root in Australia.

While Lyon has not always been the most difficult of Root’s opponents on these shores, his absence from a home Test for the first time since January 2012 helped give the former England captain enough latitude to finally forge that breakthrough century, 12 years and 26 innings later.

It was a moment to savour at a floodlit Gabba, as Root’s innings gave England a foothold in the match and the series after defeat in two days in Perth. He also ensured that Matthew Hayden would not have to follow through on his promise to run nude around the MCG if Root did not finally reach a hundred in Australia, which will be a relief to all.

At the same time, Root’s hundred and Zak Crawley’s punchy 76 placed a firm spotlight on Lyon’s absence. Many of Australia’s dog days in the second half of the 2023 Ashes series in England took place without Lyon.

In particular, Crawley severely mauled an all-pace attack in Manchester with the type of innings he occasionally summons in repayment for the unwavering faith of Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes.

Lyon has always insisted that had he not popped a calf muscle during the second game of the series at Lord’s, it would never have finished 2-2 after five Tests.

As Crawley got going after the loss of two early wickets on day one at the Gabba, setting the platform for Root’s century, it was easy to think of Lyon. At midday, he had arrived at the ground and about half an hour later, he was told he was out of the team.

Lyon then spent a doleful hour or so twirling a rugby ball around the outfield - he had done the same thing when dropped from the side for another pink ball game in Jamaica.

While it was undoubtedly sensible of Australia’s selectors to omit captain Pat Cummins because he would still have been on bowling restrictions, the call to leave out Lyon for local seam-bowling expert Michael Neser was extremely contentious.

Without a slow bowler in Brisbane, Australia ran the risk of giving England too much of the same once the pink ball loses its early pep. While the magnificent Mitchell Starc plucked another six wickets, and Neser and Scott Boland chimed in, Root was able to make the most of a familiar pace bowling rhythm.

Australia’s over rate was abominable - bowling just 74 overs in 6.5 hours - and Steve Smith ran out of ideas during an unbeaten 10th wicket stand of 61 between Root and Jofra Archer.

Lyon is plainly unhappy about the decision, and selection chair George Bailey admitted as much when he tried to explain why the panel had omitted the spinner. England, pointedly, had chosen to include one in Will Jacks.

Earlier this year, Lyon explained why he felt that spin bowling should only rarely be removed from the mix of a Test match attack, saying it provides a vital change-up if the pace bowlers cannot break through.

“Everyone focuses on the first 10 overs of a game and then usually the last couple of overs and how to win a game,” Lyon told this masthead. “But there’s a big part of the game where it can be quite hard to create chances or change the momentum. I feel like spin bowlers have the opportunity to do that, so I’m always going to fight for spin bowlers, and that’s my biggest concern.”

When the Jamaica decision was made, Lyon’s angst was partly because it meant he would miss Mitchell Starc’s 100th Test. A hat-trick from Boland against a feeble West Indies side made the decision a moot one.

But this time around, the call hurts because, in Australia, in Brisbane and in pink ball games, Lyon has been a strength for the hosts for more than a decade now. At the Gabba, Lyon has 52 wickets at 28.82 from 14 matches, often making vital breakthroughs in between spells by the quicks.

And in day/night matches, Lyon has an even better record, plucking 43 wickets at 25.62 to contribute, in his understated way, to Australia’s formidable record of success when the pink ball comes out. In the last pink-ball game at the Gabba against the West Indies, Lyon took five wickets across a game that Australia should have sealed.

Lyon was spinning a ball of a different kind ahead of the first day’s play.

As if to underline that Lyon was still an important part of the team, Bailey made the unusual move to declare on Thursday that the spinner would definitely play the next game of the series in Adelaide, and played down his absence from two of Australia’s past three Tests.

“I wouldn’t like to go down the path where you’re saying it’s purely the wickets or purely the way the game’s been played and [the] game’s not going as deep into days four and five,” Bailey said.

“It’s a combination of things and highlighted with “Gaz” because there’s been years where he has this ability to bowl long spells at two an over, hold things down, and it just hasn’t quite panned out that way.”

On Thursday afternoon at the Gabba, the time looked to be quite right also, as Stuart Broad observed in the Seven commentary box.

“I’ve always felt like he’s had a hold of England in Australia,” he said, “and it feels like [Australia] have just handed a bit of an advantage back to England with that selection.”

With the switch of Travis Head to the top of the order in Perth, Australia’s leaders made a call that scrambled England. By leaving out Lyon here, they may have outsmarted themselves.