Gatting said Australia's Nathan Lyon is "one of the best, if not the best, off-spinners in the world.
Mike Gatting was regarded as one of the better of players of spin to emerge out of England. His double century along with opener Graeme Fowler in the same innings of the Chennai Test of the 1984-85 series is a testimony of his ability with spin.
Yet, he has been found wanting against spin, the unforgettable one, and still talked about, being the 'Ball of The Century' by Australian Shane Warne, which pitched outside leg-stump and clipped Gatting's off-bail in Manchester in 1993.
"I could not play spin to save my life," Gatting said at the launch of 'Fortune Turners', a book on the famous Indian spin quartet BS Chandrasekhar, EAS Prasanna, Bishan Singh Bedi and S Venkataraghavan, written by Aditya Bhushan and Sachin Bajaj and published by Global Cricket School.
Gatting lamented the decline of spin in England. "England have gone backwards. Sadly, there is no spin in England. Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar were two of the better spinners England had until Monty lost his way like Moeen Ali is at the moment."
Gatting said Australia's Nathan Lyon is "one of the best, if not the best, off-spinners in the world. He is a fantastic bowler. Always seems to get good revs on the ball. Lyon was outstanding in the second innings of the Edgbaston Test last week. Not sure how Moeen Ali missed at the other end. Lyon, in the second innings, bowled as good as you would expect a world-class spinner to bowl."
Gatting rated former Abdul Qadir of the 1980s as the best spinner of his time in the 1980s. Gatting scored two centuries against India, which had among other spinners, a young leg-spinner in L Sivaramakrishnan, on the 1984-85 series.
"Siva was a very very good leg-spinner. Abdul Qadir was probably the best I have seen at that time. Siva was as good. I was surprised two years later Siva was out of cricket," Gatting said.
On how he tackled spin in those days, Gatting said: "When I was playing spin, I tried to take the attack to the bowler a bit. I had to find a way to put spin out of the way. You don't have to whack it out of the ground. There is no harm in playing a perfectly good defensive shot. Today, everyone wants to whack it out of the ground. I used to practice sweep and reverse sweep."
Any conversation with Gatting is incomplete without him recollecting the ball from Warne that cleaned him up 26 years ago. That was Warne's first Test delivery on English soil.
Gatting remembers the exact date it happened. "June 4, 1993, first Test at Old Trafford. Warne had come over. We had not seen great deal of him. We heard he spun the ball. Just before tea on the second day, Warne came on to bowl. There was a lot of revs on it. It had a lot of spin round about the leg stump.
"It pitched 2-3 inches outside the leg-stump. It pitched, it turned, I watched it, missed it, it missed my body and clipped the off bail. Heals (wicketkeeper Ian Healy) jumped up and down and asked me to leave.
"Captain Graham Gooch (non-striker) was really upset I got out. Warney said to me 'you lost your concentration as it was tea time. That was a bit harsh. I look again and again at the replays and I don't think I'd play it much differently," he said before having a good laugh about it.
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 "Nathan Lyon")
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