Australia off-spinner Nathan Lyon took a dig at the disturbingly flat pitches used in the ongoing India-England series. Praising the conditions in Australia, he dwelled on the one that produced a thrilling draw in Old Trafford, where India gritted out for 143 overs to save the Test.
“The conditions over here (in Australia), it’s alway been a great competition between bat and ball and that’s the way Australia’s produced wickets like that. So it’s going to be challenging for their batters and challenging for our batters. That’s the way cricket should be, you want to see competition between bat and ball,” he stressed.
“I think that’s crucial, and all the fans, that’s what they want to see, they don’t really want to watch what happened over in Manchester last week,” he quipped.
Lyon, the leading wicket-taker in contemporary cricket, has urged the Bazballers to attack him when they tour Down Under later this year. “I totally expect them to come out and attack me,” Lyon said at a Melbourne Renegades sponsor event in Melbourne.
Every touring team to Australia, he says, targets the spinners, even though Lyon might have a combined wicket tally of the entire bowling squad of England. “I think every touring team says they’re going to come and attack the spinner, so I’m pretty used to that now. Guys trying to attack me bring me into the game. So I’m looking forward to that. I’ve got some plans, and I’m already writing down a few things I want to try to put in play and work on. That’s England and the way they’re playing their cricket, so it’s amazing theatre and something I love viewing,” he observed.
He, though, admitted being hurt by the snub in the third Test between Australia and West Indies. There’s no point hiding that I was disappointed with their decision, but I totally understood it,” Lyon said. “Disappointed on a number of levels. One, I believe I can play a role in any conditions and I still honestly believe that, and the other one was not to walk out on the field with Starcy [Mitchell Starc for his 100th Test],” he said.
“We can sit here and say hats off to them, they made the right call, and if I’m going to miss a game, Scott Boland is the guy you want to see go out and perform, and for him to go out there and bowl like he did, like we know he does, to take a hat-trick was pretty special. For the guys to bowl them out for 27 was pretty fun to watch,” he added.
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He also backed under-fire teenage opener Sam Konstas to come good. “It’s a massive learning curve for Sam. I don’t think we need to be so hard on him. He’s young and still learning his game and, as Test cricketers, we’ve all been through those periods throughout our careers,” said Lyon.
“It’s about us senior players making sure we’re around him and making sure he knows he’s got full support. I think he’ll go on the Australia A tour to India (in September), so he’ll have some cricket there, then the [Sheffield] Shield cricket as well. So it’s about us putting our arms around him and making sure he goes out there and backs his skill and finds the method he wants to bat with,” he added.
He was also certain Marnus Labuschagne would return to the squad after e was dropped during the Caribbean tour. “Marn’s upbeat, and so he should be,” Lyon said. “His Test record speaks volumes. He absolutely put a couple of coaches into the ground over there with the amount of training that he was doing. But that’s Marn. That’s the way he prepares. And he’s still a class player, and he will be for a long period of time. So I’m still expecting bigger and better things from Marnus.”
