Between a shot-making English top seven and the increasingly spicy nature of pitches in Australia, 37-year-old Lyon is in for an Ashes summer to remember.
As for the prospect of England coming to Australia with a more loudmouthed persona than in the past, Lyon is up for the verbals – even as he detects some evolution in Bazball from pure entertainment to something harder-edged.
Nathan Lyon in the SCG dressing room.Credit: Sitthixay Ditthavong
“That’s the way they’re playing their cricket, which is totally fine by me. It’s shaping up for one hell of a summer,” he said. “I think their approach has changed a little bit. They’ve got some stars in their cricket side who can win games of cricket off their own back. Joe Root, Ben Stokes and these guys.
“But it looks to me like they’ve totally changed their approach, and they’re trying to think about how to win games of cricket rather than just being pure entertainers. And they’ve played some decent cricket over the last little while.”
There has been some impatience with Bazball in the UK, now that four English Test summers have passed without a series victory over India or Australia. It was that kind of criticism, from within, that Lyon was responding to in 2017.
In the days leading up to those comments, his ears had been stung by the commentary of many, but none more so than the late Shane Warne.
“Australia look confused. They’re picking wicketkeepers that aren’t even keeping for their state,” Warne said at the time. “To me, I think England are in a better situation going into that first Test than what Australia are. At the moment, the biggest shift … over the last few years, is they don’t fear Australia any more.”
Nathan Lyon at the Gabba in 2017.Credit: AAP
Lyon’s attack on England made him the focus of several days’ commentary.
Former captain Nasser Hussain suggested “he was trying to deflect from the bad week Australia have had as far as selection has gone”.
If it was a deflection, as Lyon has now agreed, it worked better than a Glenn Maxwell switch-hit. Lyon took 21 wickets for the series, still his best return in an Ashes bout, and strangled England’s scoring rate in a 4-0 outcome. England lost by the same margin here in 2021-22.
Naturally, Lyon believes that spin is essential to winning a series in Australia. Moreover, he warns that the global cupboard for tweakers is getting harder to replenish because of a preponderance of grassy pitches – the kinds of conditions that saw Lyon dropped for Scott Boland in the Caribbean.
This week, Lyon has been hosting a series of spin-bowling seminars in regional New South Wales, where prospective cricketers are schooled not only on bowling, but also insights on management and fitness.
“I do care about spin bowling and I’m not saying this because I’m concerned about my position in the team,” Lyon said. “I know my role, I know how important spin bowling is, but there is a degree of me that’s concerned about spin bowling around the world, not just Australia, with the wickets we’re playing on.
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“If you look at spin bowling and your younger spin bowlers around the country whether they’re not getting the overs or the opportunities to bowl on day-three, day-four wickets, or spinning wickets, or even green seamers because the fast bowlers are dominating.
“Everyone focuses on the first 10 overs of a game and then usually the last couple of overs and how to win a game. But there’s a big part of the game where it can be quite hard to create chances or change the momentum of the game, and I feel like spin bowlers have the opportunity to do that. So I’m always going to fight for spin bowlers, and that’s my biggest concern.”
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