Former Australian skipper Mark Taylor has made the bold suggestion that the country\u2019s all-time greatest spinner Nathan Lyon may be overlooked for the first Ashes Test later this month.<\/p>\n
The make up of the Australian XI for the series opener against England at Optus Stadium starting on September 21 still remains a mystery less than two weeks out.<\/p>\n
Much of the conjecture revolves around the fitness of Western Australian all-rounder Cam Green, who has bowled only four overs this summer as he comes back from serious back surgery.<\/p>\n
Should Green not be fit to bowl for the first Test, it is likely to mean Tasmanian all-rounder Beau Webster would be retained, with Green to either miss out or play solely as a top-order batter.<\/p>\n
However, Taylor suggested that Lyon could miss out if the Australian selectors want to play both Webster and Green, relying on the part-time spin of the former as well as Travis Head.<\/p>\n
Lyon was sensationally dropped from the third Test in the West Indies earlier this year despite being Australia\u2019s all-time leading off-spin bowler.<\/p>\n
The 37-year-old is the all-time leading Test wicket-taker at the Perth venue with 29 wickets at an average of less than 21 despite the deck being renowned for it\u2019s pace and bounce.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Green is fit, he will play. And when I say fit, I mean fit to bowl,\u201d Taylor said on Nine\u2019s Wide World of Sports.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my side, unfortunately Webster probably doesn\u2019t play. They\u2019ve got to get Green back into the side, but he has to bowl a few overs. Webster would be the unlucky one.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t be surprised, though, Australia has already done this once this year, if someone like Nathan Lyon doesn\u2019t play (in) the first Test.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only other way they can go is by playing all their quicks and Webster and Green and not have an offie.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve got Travis Head and Beau himself bowls a few offies. They might do that for Perth, which I don\u2019t like particularly. I think Nathan has got to play, but don\u2019t be surprised if that happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Taylor has called for uncapped batter Jake Weatherald to make his debut at the top of the order in the crucial first Test.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really hope that Jake Weatherald plays. There is a lot of discussions around whether he will open the batting or not. I really hope he does now play,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they\u2019ve got to start settling on an opening combination. Usman (Khawaja) is 39 in two weeks\u2019 time, so he is not going to be playing for too much longer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve got to get that younger openers in there. Jake is not that young, mind you, he is 31. He has a few years left in him and he\u2019s deserved his selection by scoring lots of runs in Shield cricket.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Australian skipper Mark Taylor has made the bold suggestion that the country\u2019s all-time greatest spinner Nathan Lyon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,56117,740,588,85,33383],"class_list":{"0":"post-272662","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-australian-cricket-team","11":"tag-cricket","12":"tag-sport","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-the-ashes"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272662","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=272662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}