SYDNEY: Ace off-spinner Nathan Lyon has started doing his homework on emerging batsman Yashasvi Jaiswal and has stored the advice he got from England spinner Tom Hartley safely in his memory bank ahead of the five-Test Border-Gavaskar series between India and Australia starting November 22.
Jaiswal, who scored a century on his debut in the West Indies last year, amassed 712 runs in the five-Test series against England at home earlier this year.
But the pace and bounce on Australian pitches will be a different challenge for the Mumbaikars.
“I haven’t met him (Jaiswal) yet but it will be a great challenge for all of us bowlers,” Lyon was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.
“The way he (Jaiswal) played against England, I watched him quite closely and I thought it was quite brilliant. I had some good chats with Tom Hartley (England left-arm spinner) about the different ways he played against different players, which I found quite interesting.”
Lyon played in the English county with Lancashire and had the chance to interact with Hartley, who took 20 wickets in four Tests against India and is someone who has first-hand knowledge of Jaiswal’s exploits.
Lyon, 36, who has taken 530 wickets in 129 Tests, believes that with so much information coming out, Australia have the best chance to complete the unfinished business against India.
“I love talking about cricket, so if I talk to someone who has played Test cricket, I might learn some things that I don’t know. There is so much information about the game that we can always benefit from.”
Since winning the 2014-15 Border-Gavaskar 2-0 series, Australia have lost the next four series against India – two against Virat Kohli’s team (2016-17, 2018-19), Ajinkya Rahane’s (2021) and Rohit Sharma’s (2023).
Along with Lyon, Josh Hazlewood is also a survivor of the 2014-15 series and admitted Australia’s recent results against India have presented a major blemish on their record.
“Ten years on, we’ve had unfinished business, it’s been a long time coming, and I know we’re very eager to turn things around, especially here on home turf,” Lyon said.
“Don’t get me wrong, India are a superstar team and extremely challenging, but I am extremely keen to turn things around and make sure we bring the trophy back,” he said.
Lyon believes this Australian team led by Pat Cummins is slightly different from Tim Paine’s side, which lost two consecutive series against India at home.
“It feels like we are a different team than we were a few years ago. We are on a journey to becoming a great Australian cricket team. We certainly haven’t got there yet but we are on that journey and playing some good cricket.”