\u201cYou\u2019re asking a spinner whether I want to bowl on day one or day five on a wearing wicket?\u201d Lyon said with a laugh. \u201cI\u2019m not a captain. I\u2019m not sure what Pat\u2019s thinking or Steve\u2019s thinking, but yeah, I\u2019d be batting first.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hough admitted that hot weather in the South Australian capital this week, with temperatures forecast to reach 38 degrees on day two (Thursday), will mean he leaves a little more moisture in the pitch than usual.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to be the curator at Adelaide where you don\u2019t pick a spinner,\u201d Hough said. \u201cSpin needs to play a part here, it always has.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven last year when [Lyon] didn\u2019t bowl a lot of overs, I felt that the pitch would have spun, but they were able to take wickets with the quicks. But spin needs to play a part in pitches around Australia, and we want it to play a part.\u201d<\/p>\n
Monday was also a special occasion for Lyon, who was inducted into Adelaide Oval\u2019s \u2018Avenue of Honour\u2019 on the western side of the ground. A blown-up image of Lyon from the 2014 Test against India \u2013 when he took 12 wickets for the match \u2013 formed the backdrop for a packed press conference two days out from the third Test.<\/p>\n
Hough, for whom Lyon once worked as a curator, watched on proudly from behind the cameras, aware the off-spinner may not play many more Tests at his favoured venue.<\/p>\n
This will be Lyon\u2019s 15th Test in Adelaide, with only Ricky Ponting (17) and Allan Border (16) having played more at the venue. A veteran of 140 Tests in the baggy green, his omission from two of Australia\u2019s past three matches \u2013 both pink-ball fixtures \u2013 came as a surprise.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, it was pretty disappointing personally,\u201d Lyon said. \u201cI\u2019ve played 140 Test matches. I feel like I don\u2019t have a point to prove to anyone. I\u2019m very clear on my role within this Australian cricket team. My dream is to continue to play cricket for Australia. No one\u2019s got a given right to be selected. You\u2019ve got to work your backside off to put your hand up for selection.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThere was a lot of disappointment, but there\u2019s no point looking back now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lyon is adamant spin bowling should continue to play a central role in Australian cricket.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s incredibly important,\u201d Lyon said. \u201cI\u2019ve always said, As soon as the ball spins, there\u2019s more eyes on TVs. When we go over to India \u2026 the exciting cricket is when the ball is spinning.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpin\u2019s incredibly important in the game of cricket \u2013 in junior cricket, in first-class cricket, in white ball, red ball \u2026 it doesn\u2019t matter what format. It\u2019s probably the hardest craft to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lyon sits one wicket shy of McGrath\u2019s career tally \u2013 the second highest by an Australian bowler \u2013 having been stuck on 562 since July 6, when he took the final wicket of the second Test against the West Indies in Grenada.<\/p>\n
\u201cI daresay it might be a little fairytale given my history working here,\u201d Lyon said. \u201cIt was the dream. My first Test match was on the roller here in 2010-11. To overtake Glenn McGrath would be pretty incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pitch is highly unlikely to resemble the batting paradise prepared for the last red-ball Ashes Test played here in 2013-14, when, as Hough observed, it was largely through the express pace of Mitchell Johnson that the game did not peter out into a draw.<\/p>\n
\u201cBack then we were trying to get the old type of pitch where it would break up and stay low on days four and five,\u201d Hough said. \u201cThe drop-ins don\u2019t deteriorate like the old square used to. So since 2015 we\u2019ve left more grass, and we\u2019ve felt there\u2019s been a much better contest for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cYou\u2019re asking a spinner whether I want to bowl on day one or day five on a wearing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-349661","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349661","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=349661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}