Lyon frank about Australia’s deficiencies

GALLE, Sri Lanka: Australian off-spinner Nathan Lyon has admitted that he, and his spin-bowling partner Jon Holland, had not challenged Sri Lanka’s batsmen down the line of the stumps frequently enough after the hosts inflicted a historic series defeat on them here.

Over the past few days, the only player singled out for criticism from Australia’s coach Darren Lehmann and captain Steven Smith has been Nathan Lyon, the touring side’s No 1 spinner.

But the reason for the criticism stems from the fact that Lyon’s returns are paltry next to those of Rangana Herath, Dilruwan Perera and Lakshan Sandakan, the Sri Lankan spin trio who have made fools of a highly-paid and seemingly well-prepared Australian batting line-up. The struggles of the batsmen have left Lyon and the rest of the bowlers with precious little scoreboard pressure on their side. Lyon, though, did not fall into excuses or the shifting of blame.

“We’ve been outplayed in all areas,” Lyon said in Galle. “I’m not going to stand here and make excuses or blame anyone. We’ve been outplayed and you’ve got to give credit where credit’s due. They’ve totally outplayed us. Yeah it’d be great to bowl with some runs on the board but that’s up to number 1 down to 11 to get those runs.

“As spinners, we need to keep hitting the stumps,” Lyon said. “If you look at their spinners, that’s what they do really well, they ask questions off the stumps. If I’m being honest enough, I don’t think Duck [Holland] and myself probably did that to the best of our ability in the last Test match. You’ve got to give credit where credit’s due. Sri Lanka plays spin really well.

“They know the conditions really well over here and they played really well and put us under pressure. We’ve got to combat that, come the third Test. It’s just about Duck and I finding a way how to best go about it in these conditions. We’re both open to change I guess. It’s different bowling in different conditions over here. It’s a learning curve. If we can keep learning over here and improving, that’s a big tick for us.”

Secondly, Lyon acknowledged that the subcontinent method of spin, cutting under the ball on a flatter trajectory, rather than working the fingers up over the top of it in search of over-spin and bounce, was something he and Holland were yet to fully master. Lyon has an outstanding record in Australia where many an Asian spin bowler has struggled, but the reverse is true here.