On bounce-friendly Perth, is a Washington Sundar-Ravichandran Ashwin combo gamble worth it?

India’s pace department is running thin on experience, but all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy is gearing up for a debut as the fourth seamer with R Ashwin playing as the lone spinner, as reported by The Indian Express.

The only setback of reiterating the four-seamer call is that it has barely fettered the Aussies on the pacy strips, holding across all games at the four-Test-old venue.

Winless at Optus, it is perhaps prudent for visiting teams to tap into what Australia has successfully imparted on the ground. That would primarily require a crafty off-spinner who can emulate Nathan Lyon’s wizardry, in addition to the unrelenting presence of a pace trio like Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, and Josh Hazlewood.

It is tempting then to glance at India’s left-field alternative for the series opener, with off-spinner Washington Sundar playing over Nitish, alongside Ashwin, and operating in Lyon’s mould.

Perth’s overspin whizz

While most sides opt for at least four pacers in Perth, Australia has stuck to their famous three and Lyon to do the damage. And quite surprisingly, it is the wily Lyon that trumps everybody else on the charts, leading with 27 scalps in four outings.

Former Australia assistant coach and spin specialist Sridharan Sriram hails Lyon’s unmatched craftiness as the essential difference between him and his spin contemporaries on Australian shores.

Bowling on the traditionally bounce-friendly decks, Lyon, who turned 37 on Wednesday, has racked up 259 of his 530 wickets in Australia – a near-unimaginable feat for a finger-spinner. Of bowlers involved in the 67-match timeline Lyon has taken to get there, the next-best spinner stands at a modest 39 wickets in 10 games in Ashwin.

Lyon has acquired a natural penchant for landing the ball with a relatively upright seam, generating the art and singularity of overspin to its best degree. “Overspin means the seam angle points more towards a leg slip than a deep square leg. So the seam stands up a lot more which means the ball drops a lot more. And because of the drop, there’s a lot more natural bounce and the wicket in Perth aids that kind of seam presentation,” Sriram explains.

“He enjoys the bounce in Perth,” Sriram says. But there’s more to Lyon’s work.

Nathan Lyon in action. (FILE)

“The speed at which he bowls is in the high 80s (kphs). It’s a rare combination where somebody can bowl at that speed with that seam presentation. That’s what makes Nathan Lyon special. On most other surfaces, the ball will lose a little bit of pace after pitching whereas at Perth the ball adds pace after landing. So Lyon really hurries onto the bat with the extra bounce, making it a much tougher proposition,” Sriram remarks.

Cricket-21 data reveals that Lyon has averaged speeds of 89 kph on wicket-taking deliveries in Australia since 2021, with nominal variation in pace for the right or left-handed batters. It ranks above Ashwin, for instance, whose average speed over the last two BGT series is 87 kph.

While he concedes he is heavily “spin-biased”, Sriram does not believe India will veer away from the usual at Perth, sticking to one spinner at best.

“My choice would be Ashwin, for his experience and ability to adapt to various conditions. He can give you both an attacking and defensive option. In places like Perth, the crease is vital in getting the ball to drift, drop and turn. That’s something Ash has used well,” Sriram reasons.

Australia have batted first in all four previous contests at Perth and have won each of them with 100-plus run margins. When India went in with no specialist tweakers in 2018, Lyon walked away with eight wickets in a 146-run win. India even turned to Hanuma Vihari’s part-time spin for crucial wickets in the first innings in the presence of a vaunted pace attack.

Similarly, Pakistan’s fourth seamer conceded 130 runs in 24 overs for a solitary wicket last year in a 360-run defeat. West Indies went in with five quicks in 2022 before a catastrophic bowling effort marked a heavy loss.

Overall, visiting fourth and fifth seamers have bowled 125 overs in eight innings against Australia at the Optus, picking up only three wickets at an ineffective average of 145.

Meanwhile, spin, powered largely by Lyon, has had a superior record on the flaky Perth strips in the third and fourth innings, accounting for 18 wickets. The 52.1 strike rate is almost comparable to pace (47.1) in the last two innings.

Going by the trend, India could pick their three most well-rounded seamers and support Ashwin with the in-form Sundar, who exudes similar qualities to maximise overspin. The left-hander will also bolster India’s lower-order batting over Nitish, who has endured a lean red-ball run in recent months.

Sriram was crucial in helping Sundar reunite with his natural strength recently and it culminated with a tremendous display against New Zealand at home – 16 wickets at 14.12. “Washi’s always been the one who’s got that extra bounce. That’s his main strength from a tall release. He’s always deceived batters when the ball has stopped on the pitch and bounced that little bit extra,” says Sriram as Sundar has marked a returned to overspin.

An unusually moist air adds to the unpredictability of the drop-in pitch in the Western Australian city this week. As the Nitish experiment bears a hackneyed Perth trope, India will also be desperate to see a pace-bowling all-rounder succeed in whites.