Who will open the batting for Australia in the Ashes?<\/a><\/p>\nThe man affectionately known as “Garry” has endeared himself to the Australian public through his humble\u00a0demeanour.<\/p>\n
However, when it’s time for barbs to be thrown at the English ahead of a home Ashes series, Lyon is more than capable of stepping up to the plate.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019ll leave Joe and his thoughts to himself,” said Lyon, referring to English batsman Joe Roots’ comment that this summer ranks as England\u2019s best chance to win a series in Australia since he started playing Test cricket.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019d be concerned if he was coming out here as one of the best batters in the world thinking that they weren\u2019t confident.”<\/p>\n
The war of words between the two nations will only intensify in the build up to the first ball on November 21. For Lyon, this is the best time of year to be part of the Australian cricket setup.<\/p>\n
“England, for me as an Australian cricketer, the pinnacle,” said Lyon.<\/p>\n
“I thoroughly enjoy bowling in Australian conditions, so I\u2019m pretty excited about the summer.”<\/p>\n
Optus Stadium in Perth will host the first of five matches and the region has traditionally formed very bouncy wickets.<\/p>\n
However, in a recent first-class game played between New South Wales and Western Australia, Lyon testified that the WACA pitch was not what we’ve come to expect.<\/p>\n
“No, I don\u2019t think so. If I\u2019m being honest, it wasn\u2019t the best pitch I\u2019ve ever played on,” said Lyon.<\/p>\n
“It was a very naughty wicket. It was wet with a big divot in it, so quite challenging even though I got 40-runs on it.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m expecting a much better wicket over in Optus Stadium that\u2019s for sure.”<\/p>\n
Australia will be hoping that the deck has a bit in it for the bowlers, especially if they enter the clash without their captain and premier quick Pat Cummins.<\/p>\n
When asked about the challenge of replacing their skipper before a Test match, Lyon emphasised that the Australian side will sorely miss their key man.<\/p>\n
“You want your best bowlers there,” he said.<\/p>\n
“The way the captain uses the tactical element of the spinners is key as well.”<\/p>\n
Of the bowling quartet, Lyon is the lone\u00a0tweaker, giving him a unique role in changing up the attack.<\/p>\n
“The spin bowler here in Australia can really be a big difference in changing the momentum,” he said.<\/p>\n
As the Ashes loom, Lyon’s experience, guile, and trademark consistency will once again be central to Australia’s campaign.<\/p>\n
With the fire already lit between the two sides, the stage is set for another epic chapter in cricket’s fiercest rivalry – and Lyon wouldn’t have it any other way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia’s greatest off-spinner of all time, Nathan Lyon, has had more than his fair share of international cricket…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-214489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}