Ashwin vs Lyon vs Yasir Shah: Who is the best Test spinner in the world currently?

In the grand game of Test cricket, spin bowling seems to be a dying art. After the era of Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharan, and Anil Kumble, quality spin bowlers have rarely emerged. The slow drift of a tossed up ball as it approaches the batsman, the ball gripping the surface and turning past the front pad to hit the stumps – such eye-catching deliveries are rarely seen nowadays.

But again, all is not lost. Among the plethora of spinners that cricket has produced over the last five years, only three have stood out – Ravichandran Ashwin, Nathan Lyon, and Yasir Shah.

Three Spinners, Three Styles

Ashwin, who impressed for the Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League with his variation of the carrom ball was picked for the home series against West Indies in 2011. He had immediate success, taking 22 wickets at 22.90 runs per wicket. He further impressed with 9 wickets against Australia, and then 18 wickets in two Tests against New Zealand, stamping his authority as India’s leading spinner in the longer format of the game.

But the overseas tours did not agree to his style of bowling, as he went through a rough patch and found himself out of the side. But he came back strongly in the recently concluded tour to Sri Lanka, earning the Man of the Series award. He’s also the fastest to reach 100 wickets for India.

Meanwhile, in Australia, the selectors were in a dilemma. After the retirement of Shane Warne, they had used ten other spinners – from Xavier Doherty to Jason Krejza to Bryce McGain – and nobody had worked out well enough. The tour to Sri Lanka was coming up, and they had to pick a good enough spinner to play on the turning tracks. Flustered and out of options, they came up with Nathan Lyon – and it turned out brilliantly.

Lyon became the second Australian to pick up a wicket off his very first ball and ended up with a five-for in the series. He put up consistently good performances in Australia and England, the two places where it was difficult to get much spin. He picked up 19 wickets in the 2013/14 Ashes and 23 wickets against India – good players of spin themselves – in Australia, and is now Australia’s most successful off-spinner in Test cricket.

With Pakistan and cricket, problems are never far off. After the ban on Saeed Ajmal and later Mohammed Hafeez, Pakistan was trying their best to unearth a spinner amidst a sea of fast bowlers. They persisted with Zulfiqar Babar for a period of time, but at 36 years of age, he didn’t have much cricket left in him. What they needed was a good, solid spinner who could turn the ball a long way – and they ended up with Yasir Shah.

Immediately in the news for his looks – fans noted a similarity to Messi – Shah did not disappoint. He picked up 12 wickets in two matches against the visiting Australians and then 15 wickets in three games against New Zealand. Though he had a quiet series against Bangladesh, he came back in ferocious style, ripping Sri Lanka apart and taking 24 wickets in three games, becoming the fastest Pakistani cricketer to 50 Test wickets.

But here, we reach a crossroads. When there are three players vying for the title of the best spinner in the world, a statistical comparison is undoubtedly necessary. Let’s take a look at their career numbers in test match cricket and see who comes on top:

Overall Numbers in Tests

Player	Matches	Wickets	Average	Best Innings Haul	5WI / 10WM
Ravichandran Ashwin	28	145	28.44	7/103	12/3
Nathan Lyon	46	162	34.09	7/94	7/1
Yasir Shah	10	61	24.81	7/76	4/0

A quick look at the table above and it is evident that Ashwin leads the way big time. Though he has played 18 less Tests than Nathan Lyon, he lags behind in only 17 wickets, at a much better average. While Lyon has taken only 7 five-wicket hauls in an innings, Ashwin has 12 to his name, including three 10-wicket hauls in a match.

Ashwin leads the way in terms of wickets-per-matches

Yasir Shah is definitely the new-comer among the three, having played Test cricket for only one year as compared to both Lyon and Ashwin who have completed five years in the longer format of cricket. But Shah is not that far behind at all, as he has four five-wicket hauls in ten matches, with three of them in consecutive Tests. A quick look at each bowler’s performances in their first ten Tests would give a clearer idea:

Performances after ten Tests

Player	Matches	Wickets	Average	Best Innings Haul	5WI / 10WM
Ravichandran Ashwin	10	55	30.23	7/103	5/1
Nathan Lyon	10	29	28.68	5/34	1/0
Yasir Shah	10	61	24.81	7/76	4/0

It is evident from this that Shah has outstripped Ashwin and completely left Lyon in the dust after his first ten matches. While Ashwin took 55 wickets in his first ten matches and Lyon just 29, Shah has picked up 61 wickets at a much better average of 24.81. Shah’s tendency to flight the ball temptingly and his good control of the ball has given him a large number of wickets.

But a quick word must be put about Nathan Lyon – while Shah played all ten of his matches in the subcontinent and Ashwin played seven of his first ten matches there, Nathan Lyon only played 3 of his first ten matches in the subcontinent, which explains his poor numbers.

Performances in the Subcontinent

Player	Matches	Wickets	Average	Best Innings Haul	5WI/10WM
Ravichandran Ashwin	19	121	22.86	7/103	12/3
Nathan Lyon	8	26	49.11	7/94	2/0
Yasir Shah	10	61	24.81	7/76	4/0

Once again, Ashwin leaves his competitors in the dust when it comes to performing in the subcontinent. Nathan Lyon is seriously under par, with only 26 wickets in 8 matches – at just more than 3 wickets per match – when compared to Ashwin and Shah, both of whom take wickets at more than 6 per match. Though Shah has not played as many matches as Ashwin, he is at the ideal halfway stage, picking up 61 wickets in 10 matches.

Against individual teams, Ashwin has enjoyed most success against West Indies and Australia, taking 34 and 29 wickets respectively. Six of Ashwin’s 12 five wicket hauls have also come against these two opponents. Lyon, on the other hand, has got 15 of his 26 subcontinent wickets against India, with his best figures in Test match cricket also coming against them. Yasir Shah’s primary victims have been Sri Lanka, and the leg-spinner has picked up 24 wickets against them in just three games – in their own backyard.

Ashwin’s best record is obviously in India, where he has taken 95 wickets in 19 matches. He has also done superbly in Sri Lanka, where he has picked up 21 wickets in 3 matches. Nathan Lyon also has enjoyed bowling in India, but he has poorer figures in Sri Lanka and the UAE, taking only 11 wickets in 6 matches in both places combined.

Though Yasir Shah has not played in India yet, he has equally impressive figures in the other subcontinent countries – 10 wickets in two matches in Bangladesh, 24 wickets in three in Sri Lanka and 27 wickets in five in Pakistan’s adopted home – the UAE.

Performances outside the Subcontinent

Player	Matches	Wickets	Average	Best Innings Haul	5WI / 10WM
Ravichandran Ashwin	9	24	56.58	4/105	0/0
Nathan Lyon	18	58	28.93	5/68	2/0

Since Yasir Shah has not played outside the subcontinent yet, he has not been included in the above comparison. But it is still important to compare the other two spinners to see where they stand while bowling on hard, unresponsive pitches that are so very different from bowling in spinning havens.

The results are extremely interesting. While Ashwin has 24 wickets from 9 matches, Lyon has 58 wickets from 18. The biggest difference, however, is in their averages. While Ashwin has picked up wickets at an expensive 56 runs per wicket, Lyon has done it in half. Ashwin also does not have a single five-wicket haul outside the subcontinent, while Lyon has two.

Of Ashwin’s 24 wickets, 21 have come in Australia, spread over 6 matches in four years. On the other hand, Lyon has performed consistently in England, South Africa, and West Indies, picking up a five-wicket haul against the latter two teams.

Another interesting statistic is that from January 2011, Lyon has picked up the most wickets by any spinner outside the subcontinent. He has 136 wickets in 38 matches and is the clear leader of the list. When the criterion of spin bowler is taken out, Lyon is third on the list of most wickets outside the subcontinent behind only Stuart Broad and James Anderson in the last four years.

Since 2011, Lyon is the most successful spinner outside the subcontinent

Performances in Winning Causes (Criteria: Three or more wickets in an innings)

Player	Matches where the bowler took 3 or more wickets	Total matches won by respective team during their period	Wickets	Average	Best Innings Haul	5WI/10WM
Ravichandran Ashwin	11	13	70	13.87	7/103	9/2
Nathan Lyon	9	24	49	18.51	7/152	4/1
Yasir Shah	6	6	32	16.21	7/76	2/0

Once again, the numbers are quite illuminating. Of the 13 matches that Ashwin has won while playing for India, he has played an active hand in 11 of them, or 84.6%. Ashwin has picked up 3 wickets or more in an innings 3 times against Australia and West Indies, and he also has a five-for against all major test playing teams except England.

In India, Ashwin has taken 76 wickets in the 11 matches that India has won, at a measly average of 20.47. Ashwin’s best bowling performances seem to come in the first and third innings of a test match, where he has 65 and 63 wickets respectively in winning causes.

Nathan Lyon has picked up three or more wickets in 9 occasions out of 24 wins for Australia, or 37.5%. While this is low compared to Ashwin’s record, it must be mentioned that most of his wickets came in Australia and West Indies, neither of which are famous for their turning pitches.

It is India whom Lyon has wrecked most havoc against, taking 19 wickets in 3 games against them. Lyon has had most success bowling in the second innings of a Test, where he makes use his wide angle to bowl into the pads of the batsmen.

When it comes to Yasir Shah, his numbers are off the charts. In the 6 wins that Pakistan has managed since his debut, Shah has picked up 3 or more wickets in every single one of them – a 100% record. The teams that he has faced- Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka – are not what you could call pushovers either, but he has come out on top against each and every one of them.

His two consecutive five-wicket hauls in Sri Lanka helped Pakistan win their first series there in nine years, and he won the Man of the Series award in the process. Shah is at his best in the fourth innings of the match, where he makes uses of the cracks on the pitch to spin the ball a long way, and also uses the googly to bamboozle the batsman.

Yasir Shah has an amazing 100% win record whenever he picks up 3 wickets or more

Final say

After the entire process of number-crunching and comparisons on different surfaces, it is still tough to name one spinner as the best. All three have had their ups and downs, and all of them have overcome the odds to come forth as the leading Test match spinners at present. The three are undoubtedly head and shoulders above their nearest compatriots, and their dramatic rise will prove to be a blessing for Test cricket.

Ashwin has ticked all the boxes. He has performed exceptionally in India and sparingly overseas. He has led India to victory in 84% of matches they have won, which is no mean feat. He was the fastest Indian to reach 100 wickets and was the leading wicket-taker in any series between India and Sri Lanka. With South Africa looming next month, it will be very interesting to see how Ashwin tackles the heavyweights in the comfort of home conditions.

Nathan Lyon has been brilliant at times and very plain at other times. While he has not been up to scratch in the spin-friendly pitches of UAE and India, he has been the best spinner outside the subcontinent in recent times. Among all bowlers too, he is third on the list, above bowlers like Dale Steyn, Mitchell Johnson, and Vernon Philander. He is currently Australia’s most successful off-spinner of all time, and will continue as their leading wicket-taker for a good number of years.

Yasir Shah is the greenhorn of the three, with hardly a year’s experience under his belt. But he has put in terrific performances throughout, contributing to all of Pakistan’s wins in the last year or so. He is the fastest Pakistani to 50 Test wickets and is fast on the heels of Saeed Ajmal to become the fastest to 100 wickets as well – he needs 39 wickets in 8 games.

Coming through when Pakistan most needed him, Yasir is still new to the game and has never played outside the subcontinent. It will be a while before he pulls his weight as one of the best, but for now, he is better than any other leg-spinner currently playing the game. With a home series against England and a tour to New Zealand in the works, it will be the best opportunity for him to face new opponents and play in unfamiliar surfaces.

To conclude, Ravichandran Ashwin wins as Test cricket’s best spinner at the moment by virtue of his sheer weight in numbers. It is true that Nathan Lyon hasn’t played in spin-friendly tracks like him, but he hasn’t grabbed the opportunity when he toured India and the UAE. Yasir Shah is still new and has lots ahead of him. It is entirely possible that in a year or two’s time, these positions could interchange – or a new player could even topple them all – but that is one of the many surprises that the game of cricket will continue to spring.