The Ashes 2013: Nathan Lyon vs Graeme Swann - Who poses a bigger threat in the series?

Graeme Swann

In the first Ashes Test at Brisbane, the battle of the spinners was comfortably won by Nathan Lyon. Swann had a forgettable Test match, picking up only 2 wickets in the 53 overs that he bowled. Lyon had a superb game, complementing the work of his pacers, Mitchell Johnson, Ryan Harris and Peter Siddle. Lyon managed to do what Swann couldn’t, extracting considerable turn and bounce from the wicket.

Lyon was also helped by the fact that England’s batsman displayed abundant uncertainty in playing him, pushing at the ball and not defending the ball with conviction. Australia were far more polished when it came to tackling Swann. Michael Clarke, Steve Smith and David Warner made sure that they attacked Swann and didn’t let him settle into a rhythm.

In Test cricket, it is essential that a side has a spinner who bowls well. It is not too often, that the all-pacer strategy works. Spinners can bowl those long spells, and it is essential that spinners can keep a lid on the scoring. More so, for Lyon since he has Johnson, Harris and Siddle to inflict the damage on England. Lyon’s superiority over Swann was accentuated by the fact that the Aussie pacers managed far more penetration than the Englishmen, out of whom Stuart Broad was the only one who made any real impression.

With the next Test match being in Adelaide, which is traditionally one of the more spinner-friendly grounds in Australia, it is imperative for England, that Swann takes the initiative to lead the attack and makes sure that he puts his performance in Brisbane out of his system completely, because the Swann we saw in Brisbane was not the Swann that we know. The most glaring flaw that we saw was that he wasn’t flighting the ball enough, which led to him not getting enough revolutions on the ball which meant that he could not get enough purchase from the wicket. As much as the Aussie batsmen have to be credited for that, Swann could have also stuck to his guns to ensure that he wasn’t as ineffective as he was.

Adelaide, being Lyon’s home-ground should be a mouth-watering prospect for the Australian offie. All Lyon should do is to ensure that he sticks to more of the same. It was baffling that Lyon was left out for some tests in Australia’s last two overseas tours to India and England, because he is Australia’s best spinner by a country-mile. The likes of Ashton Agar, Xavier Doherty, etc. are, let’s face it, not Test quality.

Nathan Lyon

For the duration of this Ashes series, Lyon vs Swann will be one individual battle that could decide the course of the Test match and round one was a decisive victory for Lyon where he made a statement, saying that if the pacers didn’t get it right, he would also be a force to reckon with. But Swann, being the fighter that he is, will do all in his prowess to ensure that he puts in a better performance in Adelaide and beyond.

It took Lyon a while to get that team song out, on an Aussie win, and he will want to ensure that he can do that with more frequency now, and Swann will be itching to get back to being the world-class bowler that he is, after a poor outing in Brisbane.