'He has to be a factor': Ian Healy puts heat on Nathan Lyon as injury-hit Aussies eye Perth Test

Australian cricket great Ian Healy has put heat on Nathan Lyon as the prolific off-spinner awaits the pace-friendly conditions of Perth, stressing that "he can be a factor and he has to be a factor" in the first Ashes Test.

Lyon boasts an impressive record at Perth Stadium — from five Tests, he's claimed 29 wickets at 20.86 — but in last summer's Test against India in the west, where the Australians were thumped, the veteran tweaker picked up only two scalps.

Cracks opened up and created up-and-down bounce as the match wore on but Lyon proved ineffective as India went about posting 6-487 in its second dig, before eventually securing victory by 295 runs.

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Lyon took 0-23 from five overs, then 2-96 from 39 overs.

Australia's most successful Test off-spinner in history is expected to form a bowling attack with Mitchell Starc, Scott Boland and the uncapped Brendan Doggett in the first Test, beginning on Friday, with Cameron Green and possibly Beau Webster set to bolster the cartel.

Pat Cummins (back), Josh Hazlewood (hamstring) and Sean Abbott (hamstring) are all unavailable for the series opener.

Healy, whose work behind the stumps to legendary leg-spinner Shane Warne in the 1990s went down in folklore, was asked on his SEN radio show on Wednesday if Lyon could "be a factor" in Perth.

"Yes, he could be; he is a bowler that achieves bounce and he will turn and maybe those cracks will make for uneven bounce," Healy replied, before setting out the challenge awaiting the 37-year-old.

"He's got to do a job for the quicks, especially if it starts getting hot. He's got to be economical and pressure-packed, and that'll do.

"If they want to come at him, he can set his field in important areas where they might go him and bowl appropriately.

"He's good enough to do those few things in the front of the match, and then at the end he can certainly change it up; he can go around the wicket to left-handers, he can bounce it to right-handers and have a field set well.

"He can be a factor and he has to be a factor."

Lyon's record at Perth Stadium is far superior to his record at the WACA, where he played five Tests for 15 wickets at 47.93.

Perth Stadium has been used as the city's venue for international cricket since opening in 2018.

Pitches are curated elsewhere and dropped in at Perth Stadium by cranes. The soil and grass species used for the venue are sourced from the same region south of Perth that's given the WACA its famously fast and bouncy character for more than half a century.

Lyon was dropped for Australia's most recent Test — the third match of the mid-year tour of the West Indies — but it's unlikely selectors will pick an all-out pace attack for any of this summer's Tests.

The only specialist spinner in England's squad, 22-year-old off-spinner Shoaib Bashir, has a very ordinary Test record: 68 wickets at 39 from 19 matches.

Whether there's room for Bashir in England's XI for the first Test remains to be seen, but former Australian Test captain Ian Chappell believes the finger-spinner can make an impact this summer.

"If [Ben] Stokes is fit to bowl in all five Tests, it's going to be hard work for Australia because Stokes is a bloody good bowler," Chappell said on Wide World of Sports' Outside the Rope.

"[Jofra] Archer, if he's available for three [matches] — he's pretty useful. [Mark] Wood [is quality]. They've got a decent attack. [Brydon] Carse — big heart, I've got a lot of time for him. [Gus] Atkinson? No mug.

"So if those guys are bowling well and the batsmen are under the hammer and you bring Bashir on and the batsman says, 'Oh, thank heavens for that, now here's some runs', and [they] go after him, Bashir's good enough to get them out, [so] long as he can maintain a bit of control. He does vary a bit.

"But ... Stokes uses him quite well.

"So, I've got a bit of time for Bashir."