Pallekele: Indian off-spinner Yashasvi Jaiswal during a practice session at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in Pallekele on Thursday, July 25, 2024. (Photo: PTI)
Ace off-spinner Nathan Lyon has already begun his assignment on rising batting sensation Yashasvi Jaiswal with English spinner Tom Hartley’s input on the left-hander safely stored in his memory bank ahead of the five-Test Border-Gavaskar series between India and Australia that begins on November 22.
Jaiswal, who scored a century on debut for the West Indies last year, scored a staggering 712 runs in the five Test series against England at home earlier this year.
But the pace and bounce that the Australian tracks offer will pose a different challenge for the Mumbaikar.
I haven’t come across him yet [Jaiswal] “Not yet, but that will be a massive challenge for all of us bowlers,” Lyon was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo.
The way he (Jaiswal) played against England, I watched very closely and thought it was quite amazing.
I had some really good chats with Tom Hartley (England left-hander) about the different ways he approached it with different lads, which I found quite interesting.
Lyon had a stint in the English county with Lancashire and had the chance to share notes 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 530 wickets in 129 Tests, feels that with so much information circulating, the Australians have the best chance of getting the job done against India.
I love talking about cricket, so if I can talk to someone who has played Test cricket, maybe I can learn something I don’t know. There is so much knowledge circulating around this game that we can always draw on.
Since winning the 2014-15 Border-Gavaskar 2-0, Australia have lost the next four series against India – two each against Virat Kohli’s team (2016-17, 2018-19), Ajinkya Rahane (2021) and Rohit Sharma’s (2023).
If the plans we’ve talked about come true, then I think that will be the case.
Along with Lyon, Josh Hazlewood is another survivor from the 2014-15 series and he acknowledged that Australia’s recent results against India represent a significant hole in their record.
It’s been ten years of unfinished business, a lot of time has passed and I know we are very hungry to change things, especially here at home, Lyon said.
Don’t get me wrong, India are an absolutely superstar team and extremely challenging, but I am extremely hungry to turn things around and make sure we get that trophy back, he said.
Lyon feels this Pat Cummins-led Australian team is slightly different compared to Tim Paine’s side that lost back-to-back series against India at home.
We feel like we are a different team to the one we were a couple of years ago. We are on the way to becoming a big Australian cricket team. We definitely haven’t quite got there, but we are on that path and we have been playing some decent cricket.
Beating India in a Test series could tick a box on many players’ CVs, Hazlewood felt.
There are many players who have never beaten India in a Test series. It is quite surprising to say so, he said.
That’s something we definitely need to achieve, especially at home: we should win practically every series here at home.
In the last series, we obviously bowled them out by 36 in Adelaide and we thought here we go, (we’re) back home (and) confident on this pitch.
“People say we played against India B in that last game, but sometimes they can be stronger than the top team. They have incredible depth across all formats and we are starting to see that now,” he added.
Hazlewood said that while regaining the Border-Gavaskar trophy is the priority, the Australians will also be keeping an eye on the World Test Championship points table.
It’s always in the background, we have the table set. [to see] Where we sit and what we need to mark, he said.
“For me it’s a great moment because I couldn’t play the last one in England, so it’s something that hurts me a lot.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First published: August 18, 2024 | 19:19 IS
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