Nathan Lyon, Australia’s best ever off-spinner, considers that England’s left-arm spinner Jack Leach is still their great spinner, and said that Shoaib Bashir, England’s current injured No. 1 spinner, also for Ashes tour 2025-26, “has been okay.”
While communicating to the Cricket Australia sponsorship announcement in Sydney on Thursday, Lyon expressed that former England player James Andreson told him that Bashir has been given a chance to try and duplicate what Lyon does in Australia. But Lyon thinks that the great spinner which England still has is Leach.
“I obviously played with Jimmy Anderson last year at Lancashire, and they basically said that they’re picking Bashir to do what I do,” Lyon said. “So I took a little bit of pride out of Jimmy respecting a little bit of what I’ve been able to do in my career. But Bashir has been okay.”
“Jacob Bethell is playing this Test match [at The Oval against India], and he looks like he’ll take up the spin bowling from Liam Dawson. But in my eyes, Jack Leach is still their best spinner.”
Leach, 34 year-old, has not played for his team after last year’s visit to Pakistan, where he played much better than other two spinners Noman Ali and Sajid Khan who provided opportunities to Pakistan to win the last two Test games. In that series which included three Test games, Leach took 16 wickets at an average of 31.43 and a strike rate of 50.75, which is still more than average of Shoaib Bashir who had 9 wickets at average of 49.55 and strike rate of 79.44.
Across their last three series against New Zealand, Zimbabwe and India, England was committed to having Bashir as their No. 1 spinner. During the ongoing series against India, he suffered a finger injury in the ending of series in Lord’s Test, then Liam Dawson returned in his place as a sole spinner of England for the fourth Test match in Manchester, who joined Test games after eight years.
However Dawson is still not selected for the fifth and final Oval Test game, where England selected four fast bowlers, and Jacob Bethell will be playing in place of Dawson as part time left-arm spinner.
During Australia’s most recent Test match against West Indies in Jamaica, Lyon himself was not selected for that match where selectors chose four quicks in a pink-ball game which ended in two-and-a-half days. But he thinks that spinners will also get a chance to play in the Ashes in Australia, regardless of pitches that are very seam-friendly in recent years.
“It is a massive role, and it can be a massive challenge for people who haven’t done it in the past in these conditions,” Lyon said. “But I’m not going to let my secrets out so they come out and perform well out here. Our guys know how to spin really well in this country. That’s probably what helped me produce my skill to where it is at the moment. I know I’ll keep trying to get better, and we’ll see how their spinners go.”
