After a rapid first Ashes Test and with the prospect of a pink ball Test in Brisbane, Nathan Lyon could be an unlikely casualty from Australia's victorious Perth XI, writes Katya Witney.
Australia are 1-0 up in the Ashes, despite having gone into the first Test with two of their four locked in home-soil bowlers absent through injury. Mitchell Starc’s awesome new-ball skills in Perth, coupled with enough support from his back-up cronies and England’s own implosions, meant Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood were barely missed.
Those factors also meant that Nathan Lyon bowled two overs in England’s first innings, and none in their second, with each innings lasting fewer than 35 overs. Only twice before has Lyon bowled fewer overs in a Test match in Australia, in day/night Tests against India at Adelaide last year, and against England at Hobart in the 2021/22 Ashes. In both of those matches, the visiting lineups batted for fewer than 90 overs across both innings combined, and both matches were over inside three days.
Lyon hasn’t missed a Test match on home soil since 2012, when Australia went for an all-out pace attack at the WACA and hammered India by more than an innings. For 13 years, no broken finger, no dodgy calf, not even a bout of Covid. Yet, there’s a line of thinking which could see that extraordinary streak broken at The Gabba next week.
Speaking on Monday, Australia coach Andrew McDonald said of Lyon potentially sitting out for Brisbane: "It's not something that we like doing. It's not a starting point for anything. And even if you look at the Perth Test match, people will sort of question that he only bowled two overs and speculation will begin for the pink-ball Test. But we felt as though in the Perth Test, if that game had been elongated, that the spinner would have come into the Test.”
Nathan Lyon is still going strong at 37, but who’s next in line for Australia in the spin department? 🇦🇺
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The question is whether England will hold up long enough under pink ball examination for Lyon to come into play. In the history of day-night Tests in Australia, only nine times has an opposing team’s innings lasted beyond the first new ball. Teams are more likely to be bowled out in the first 60 overs than they are to necessitate a fresh batch of pink cherries being brought out to the middle. Equally, England’s volatility means, pink ball or not, Tests are at much greater risk of not reaching the threshold for spin to come into play. While there’s no way to reliably predict that, the extra movement under lights means planning a bowling attack accordingly is somewhat possible.
Lyon was left out of Australia’s final Test in the Caribbean earlier this year, specifically because conditions during that series were so extreme. That decision was vindicated when West Indies were bowled out for 27 in under 15 overs on day three. Speaking afterwards, he said: "I want to play every game for Australia, and I've just got that belief that I can play a role in any conditions, as every cricketer should have that belief. But at the end of the day, we can sit here and say hats off to them, they made the right call.”
Australia could have Cummins and Scott Boland available in Brisbane alongside Starc, while Michael Neser’s five wickets under lights against the West Indies in his last Test outing could also see him fall under the selector’s pen. With Cameron Green in the middle-order, that’s a fearsome five seamers to target England with, while Australia also have part-time options among their batters to make up overs as required.
Leaving Lyon out would be a huge call. Despite being surplus to requirements in the last day-night Test in Australia, he bowled 50 overs under lights against West Indies in January last year in hot, humid conditions which could be repeated next week. In that game that ended in a famous win for the West Indies, both Cummins and Starc struggled in the second innings, while Lyon picked up three wickets. Equally, with half of their first-choice attack managing returns from injury, the increased workload Lyon’s absence could cause may be a factor in the selectors’ final decision.
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More broadly, leaving Lyon out would be emblematic of the limited time Australia’s iconic great bowling quartet has left before breaking up for good. While injuries have kept out one of Hazlewood, Cummins or Starc intermittently, Lyon has been the core, unique among modern spinners outside of Asia and the last of a dying breed.
As Australian pitches have become more unpredictable and less road-like over the last five years, conditions have demanded the type of work Lyon got through earlier in his career less and less. In the 2017/18 Ashes, Lyon bowled 260 overs. In a four-Test series against India the following summer, he bowled 242. Three years later, he bowled fewer than 200 in the 2020/21 Border Gavaskar Trophy, 163 in the 2021/22 Ashes, and 122 in last year’s BGT. The pace at which England play Test cricket only takes further overs out of the game, most of them Lyon’s.
“Will we ask ourselves the question? Of course,” said McDonald. “We do every game.” This time however, that question might be more probing than in previous summers.
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