Nathan Lyon to unleash new mystery ball soon

Nathan Lyon

Australian off-spinner Nathan Lyon has announced that he will soon reveal his new mystery ball. The 26-year-old has been working on the same with Sri Lankan spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan (Australia’s spin bowling consultant) and John Davison, Australia’s spin bowling coach.

Speaking on his new ‘unnamed’ variation, Lyon said: "I'm trying to bowl a back-spinner at the moment, which is simply... my grip is similar (to my off-spinner), but I push the ball back into my hand (and) my thumb comes on the ball.

"Instead of going over the top of the ball (with my wrist action), I'm coming down the back of the ball, which really releases the ball ... so it's spinning backwards and hopefully hitting the pitch and going the other way," he was quoted saying to Cricket Australia’s Official Website.

Not a new version of ‘Carrom ball’

Notably, he was seen bowling a delivery that spun the opposite way to a conventional off-spinning delivery in 2012, which he calls as ‘Jeff.’ The ‘Jeff’ was more of an off-spinner’s doosra which he refused to call by the same name. However, this time the 26-year-old made it clear that the new one is not his own version of the carrom ball, reports confirm. It can be remembered that he claimed to be practising an Australian version of the ‘carrom ball‘ in June.

"It's a form of back spinner, but it depends on how he gets it out. He can get it spinning on a slightly different axis and it'll behave differently on different surfaces. He's bowling it more and more and he's actually delivering it in different ways," Davison informed.

Depsite adding a new dimension to his bowling, Lyon will rely on his off-breaks to taste success and will only use the variation to unsettle a batsman’s concentration, the coach suggested.

"It's not a ball that you're going to see a lot. It's just one of the those balls that's going to plant a seed of doubt in the batter's mind and show them that he's got something a little bit different and hopefully that makes his stock ball more effective," said Davison.

Confident to bowl in a match

Revealing more details about the mystery ball, his Australian teammate Steven Smith said that he is delivering it consistently with practice. The 25-year-old who has faced the delivery in the nets said "it's still a work in progress for him".

"He's told me that he's got to gain the confidence to be able to bowl it in a game, but every time he's bowled it, it's come out pretty well. It's a key for him to keep working on it and get it to the stage where he's confident he can land it nine out of ten times and be able to execute it well,” Smith further added.