Nathan Lyon isn’t a part of Australia’s XI facing West Indies in the last Test at Sabina Park. This is the first time in 12 years that he has been left out of the side’s Test bowling attack without any injury. Australia selector Tony Dodemaide said the decision was made on the basis of ‘exceptional circumstances’ that arose in the light of Australia’s first pink-ball Test with a Dukes ball.
In his last day-night Test game, Lyon only bowled one over across both innings. Spinners, typically, aren’t much of help when bowling under lights. The pink ball generally swings more, particularly during the dark hours of the game. Lyon, for quite some time, has been an exception to the ball’s inclination towards seamers. He is the most experienced pink-ball spinner, having bowled almost 428 overs with it. But this once, Australia decided it was time to get a pace quartet and expect the surface to stay true to its initial impression.
“It’s something that wasn’t front of mind, certainly a difficult [decision], but we thought the exceptional circumstances justified having the four quicks so that we could rotate those guys and keep the pressure on,” Dodemaide said. “On a well-grassed surface and a hard surface with lots of night-time play hours, that was the best way to win the game.”
The pink Dukes ball was somewhat of an unknown territory for Australia, having played all their day-night games with a Kookaburra. So far, the Dukes ball has shown to move more and for longer periods than Kookaburra, diminishing spinners’ role further. However, the sample size for this conclusion is too small to be sure. Before this game, only two day-night Tests were ever played with it: England vs West Indies in Birmingham in 2017 and West Indies vs Sri Lanka at Kensington Oval in 2018. On both these occasions, however, none of the teams went full pace.
“But the key in here is it’s a conditions-based decision to go with the four quicks,” Dodemaide said. “What we found here with the limited data that we have on particularly the pink Dukes ball… [is] that it actually behaves a little differently to the Kookaburra one. It doesn’t go as soft.
“The Kookaburra one tends to have a trough when it doesn’t move so much in those middle overs. That’s not the case with the Dukes one, the history tells us that, and that’s been our live experience when we’ve been here for the past couple of days in terms of the practice sessions that we’ve had. We’ve seen out here in practice the last couple of days that the ball does, big ball does a lot and it’s very difficult for the batters.”
This Test game comes with plenty of milestones of Australia’s bowling attack, one of which is Mitchell Starc making his 100th Test appearance. Lyon, who has played 94 Test matches with Starc, is disappointed at missing the moment with his teammate, but Dodemaide believes he is a ‘team man’ and would know what tough decisions like this actually mean.
“They’re great mates,” Dodemaide said. “He’s disappointed because he wants to play every game. He’s a great competitor and he believes he can be effective in any conditions. But he’s a team man as well and understands the right thing for the team and he’ll do his best to support the guys. But it’s a one-off. It’s no reflection on performance for Nathan. It’s simply the best way we think we can win this game.”
