While pitches in England and Australia are not as conducive to spin bowling as they are in the sub-continent, the player with the most number of wickets (195) taken in the history of the Ashes is the legendary leg-spinner, Shane Warne.

So while the likes of James Anderson and Stuart Broad will look to outperform Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc, it will be intriguing to see how the Moeen Ali versus Nathan Lyon battle pans out in the forthcoming Ashes.

According to former Australia coach Justin Langer, Lyon holds the edge over Moeen as he is a ‘very good bowler’.

“England don’t have a world-class spinner. That’s no disrespect to Moeen (Ali). He’s a good offie, but he’s not Nathan Lyon,” Langer told The Telegraph.

“I never realised until I started coaching Australia how good a bowler Nathan Lyon is. He’s a very, very good bowler. Hard to get away, and incredibly important to Australia. Not only does he take wickets, but he bowls a lot of overs and traditionally holds up one end.”

Lyon produced a fine display of spin bowling in the fourth innings of the World Test Championship final last week when Australia defeated India by 209 runs. The 35-year-old finished with figures of 4/41. In the first innings, he bowled just four overs but picked up the crucial wicket of Ravindra Jadeja. Harry Brook recently said that he would look to take on Lyon. Langer, however, feels it’s not going to be a simple task.

“You hear ‘they are just going to smash Nathan Lyon. But, I was watching this week and Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli. And I’m going, it’s not that easy to do. I think he could be the difference in the series,” he added.

The experienced campaigner Lyon has played 28 Tests against England thus far. He has taken 101 wickets at an average of 29.42 with two five-wicket hauls.

The first of the five Ashes Tests in scheduled to be held at Edgbaston on June 16. The last time Lyon faced England at Edgbaston, he finished with nine wickets in the match, with six of them coming in the second innings.