Australia have lost their last two home series to India, and the last four overall, yet Nathan Lyon is optimistic about the next Border-Gavaskar Trophy clash. On Tuesday, March 26, Cricket Australia revealed the international calendar for the 2024-25 season. It includes a 5-Test marquee series between India and Australia.
The previous Test series between these two teams Down Under produced a contest for the ages. After an ignominious defeat in the first Test, where they were bowled out for 36 in an innings, the Indian team fought back astonishingly. Despite missing over half of their first-choice squad, the Indian team defeated Australia 2-1 with the last Test witnessing the Indian team registering the first win for a touring side in Brisbane since 1988.
Nathan Lyon is key to Australia’s success
One of the major reasons for India’s success in that rubber was the lack of wickets for Nathan Lyon. The off-spinner has been a mainstay of the Aussie team. However, during the last Border-Gavaskar Trophy clash in home conditions, Lyon couldn’t weave his magic as usual. In both the third and the fourth Test, he failed to bowl his team to a win in the fourth innings.
Speaking about the next series against India, which begins on November 22 at Perth, Lyon expressed confidence in his team’s abilities.
“I think we’re a totally different team now, under Pat (Cummins’) captaincy. We’re a nice, calm, collected cricket team. I feel like we’ve all grown up and got better, more experienced,” Lyon was quoted as saying by Cricket Australia. “If we try and learn from our mistakes in the past and make sure that, as a bowling unit, we put pressure on them in different ways, hopefully, we’ll be able to take a few more chances this time.”
The mention of ‘taking a few more chances’ is interesting. During the 2020-21 series in Australia, Lyon suffered due to missed chances by the then wicketkeeper, and captain, Tim Paine. What really hurt Australia were the missed chances off Lyon’s bowling against India’s Rishabh Pant. The Indian keeper-batsman played pivotal knocks for his team in both the third and the fourth Tests.
Nathan Lyon rues Australia’s missed chances in India
Nathan Lyon also talked about the last two series that he played in India. In both those series, Australia had a decent chance of beating India, but they fell short and lost 2-1 on both occasions. The off-spinner rued the missed opportunities.
“I look at a (the last) couple of series in India and I just go, ‘If we did this a little bit different, a little bit better, then potentially we could’ve (won them)’. But it’s quite easy to sit back and say that. It’s about us making sure we’re well prepared. I’m looking forward to this one.
“We’re going to be coming off a long break so the guys are going to be itching to get back out there and play some decent Test matches… and I feel like with the way Andrew (McDonald, coach) and Pat have the Test team going, there’s a lot of confidence there. There’s a lot of belief there.”
Nathan Lyon’s role as Australia’s lead spinner would be very crucial to their success against India. India may not have Cheteshwar Pujara in their middle order to blunt Lyon, something he did very well in the last two series. However, Rishabh Pant is likely to be in the Test squad. The contest between Pant and Lyon will be riveting to watch. It was the Indian keeper-batsman’s win in this duel that powered India to victory in the 2020-21 series.