Kangaroo team’s veteran off-spinner Nathan Lyon has started preparing for the five-Test Border-Gavaskar series between India and Australia starting on November 22. Nathan Lyon has taken help from England to prepare to deal with India’s emerging star batsman Yashasvi Jaiswal. Nathan Lyon himself has said that he has taken advice from England spinner Tom Hartley on how to control Jaiswal.
Jaiswal, who scored a century on debut in the West Indies last year, scored 712 runs in the five-Test series against England at home earlier this year, but the pace and bounce on Australian pitches will pose a different challenge for the Mumbai batsman. ‘ESPNcricinfo’ quoted Lyon as saying, “I have not faced him (Jaiswal) yet, but it will be a big challenge for all of us bowlers.
He said, “The way he (Jaiswal) played against England, I saw him very closely and I thought it was fantastic.” Lyon further said, “I had a very good conversation with Tom Hartley (England’s left-arm spinner) about his ways of playing against different bowlers which I found very interesting.”
Lyon played for Lancashire in the English county and got a chance to interact with Hartley, who took 20 wickets in four Tests against India and is someone who has experience of playing against Jaiswal. Australia have lost the next four series against India since winning the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2-0 in 2014-15. Two of these series were played under the leadership of Virat Kohli (2016-17, 2018-19), while one each was played under the leadership of Ajinkya Rahane (2021) and Rohit Sharma (2023).