Australian fans can rejoice — the Ashes are coming home. That is if Nathan Lyon has his way.
The Aussies have had a torrid time in England since 2001, the last time Australia had won an Ashes series in the heart of the old enemy. Australia have been dominant at home with just one series loss in 32 years but after four straight unsuccessful tours, Lyon thinks England have had enough success.
And he thinks Australia will do it in style. The 31-year-old Lyon, who has led out the Australian team song since Mike Hussey handed it on following his retirement in January 2013, thinks he’ll be very acquainted with the words of the song on the road. Channelling Glen McGrath, who always predicted big wins for Australia, Lyon said Australia will win the Ashes “5-0”.
Lyon will be one of the keys to success in England and is verging on moving into the top three wicket takers of all time for Australia which could happen in England. Lyon is just 12 wickets behind Dennis Lillee with just Glen McGrath (563 wickets) and Warne (708) ahead of him. Former Australian spinner Ashley Mallett told The West Australian Lyon could even be on track to pass Warne. While the gap seems insurmountable, Warne had 366 scalps from 84 Tests at 31 before retiring at 37. Lyon currently has played 86 Tests.
“To be spoken about in the same sentence and Shane Warne and the likes of Glen McGrath and Dennis Lillee, is obviously pretty special,” Lyon admitted. “They’re true legends of the game and I’m still trying to find my way and really play my role for the Australian cricket team.”
Lyon is a man with plenty of nicknames, including the GOAT, standing for Greatest Of All Time, which he has held since he took his 142nd Test wicket to pass Hugh Trumble as the most prolific off-spinner for Australia. While most players would have it hung around their neck with a level of arrogance, it has endeared Lyon to generations of cricket fans, maybe through his clear reluctance to hold it.
“In my eyes, Shane Warne is the greatest of all time — I’m not even close to Shane Warne is the only thing,” Lyon said. “The GOAT stuck and I’ve got young kids calling me the GOAT and young kids calling me Gary so it doesn’t matter where I go, people will call me what they want to call me, so it’s no stress on me.”
Looking forward to the Ashes, Lyon said he’s wary of a wounded England. Legends have piled on England after a horror series in the West Indies. England lost the three match series in the first two matches with crushing victories. England won the final game largely thanks to Joe Root’s 122 in the second innings of the third Test, England’s only century of the series. Root had only scored 55 runs in the first five innings he played.
It led Ian Chappell to say “Root deserves a kick up the backside” and Mark Taylor to say England “still don’t know what their best order is”.
Having played 18-Tests across four series against England with two series in Australia and two in England, Lyon knows better than most that both sides will bring their A-game to the series, calling it the “pinnacle” of cricket for an Aussie player.
While Lyon said there’s little to glean from England’s performance in the West Indies series, it’s given Australia a boost.
“We know when they’re at home they’re a world-class side, you can’t really read into too much that has happened over in the Caribbean,” Lyon said. “I’m not going to sit here and say anything like that but they’re a world-class side and have some superstars in their side and it’s going to be one hell of a challenge over there. But I’m quietly confident heading over to the Ashes, that’s for sure.”
While England are still trying to work out their best side, particularly at the top of the order, Australia are all of a sudden overflowing with options. The darkness of the 2018 season has also led to the light at the end of the tunnel with several players putting their hands up.
Kurtis Patterson, Marnus Labuschagne, Marcus Harris and young Will Pucovski have batted their way into the public consciousness with stunning performances throughout the summer while Usman Khawaja returned to form with a century in his last Test start against Sri Lanka.
Four centuries in the last Test of the summer opened the floodgates with the second half of the Sheffield Shield competition set up for an exciting finish.
With bowlers, Jhye Richardson has burst onto the scene with a stunning first series against Sri Lanka, while Daniel Worrall and Chris Tremain have had votes of confidence from legends and pundits as Ashes bolters. The glut of talent is a tremendous boost for Australia, which was calling out for stars to put their hands up at the start of the season.
“It’s massive, you always want competition for spots side whether it’s for batting, keeping, bowling, no matter what it is,” Lyon said. “If you can have healthy competition within the squad and players pushing and putting their hands up for selection, it only means Australian cricket is going really well. I’m all for competition for spots, it’s only going to push you to get better and better and that will bring out the best stuff for Australian cricket.
“When you bring new people into the squad, they bring a new vibe and new intensity and energy so it’s been a great summer for that. It’s exciting but it’s really healthy to have guys to be competing for spots. There are only 11 guys who can take the field in the first Ashes Test so there’s going to be guys pushing for selection and there’s going to be a big winter and lead up to the first Ashes Test.
“It’s great to have young guys floating around and doing really well and that’s really going to push the senior guys to find a new level and to take Cricket Australia to a new level to hopefully regain the Ashes and bring the Ashes back home.”
For Lyon, 2018 was a stunning year. The Aussie off-spinner took 49 wickets at an average of 34.02 with a huge 615.3 overs, 145.3 overs more than the next most used bowler in 2018, Sri Lanka’s Dilruwan Perera. He was the third highest wicket taker of the calendar year behind Perera (50) and South Africa’s Kagiso Rabada (52).
It saw Lyon win the Test Player of the Year at the Australian Cricket Awards earlier this week and finish second for the Allan Border Medal behind winner Pat Cummins. The fiery quick said he picked spinner to claim Australian cricket’s biggest honour but Lyon didn’t quite buy it.
“You can’t really rock up to the awards and say yeah I’m going to win it so that’s why Pat said it, but he’s been writing his speech for about two months,” Lyon laughed. “He’s a well deserved winner of the Allan Border Medal.
“It’s definitely pleasing but it’s more about for me, playing my role inside the Australian cricket side and making sure we’re trying to win as many games and series of cricket as we can for Australia. Personally it was satisfying but there’s a still a lot of work I need to do and still a lot of learning to be done and there are two areas I can get better at so still a lot of work to do.
“To be able to be recognised and a lot of votes from your peers is pretty special to be named Test Player of the Year that’s for sure.”
Before the Ashes, Lyon will aim to make the Australian one-day squad ahead of the World Cup in England. To start, he is set to go to India and the UAE with the squad in the hopes of being selected for the World Cup.
But Lyon also praised the development of spinners in the Big Bash. Lyon was only able to play two Big Bash matches for the season but praised the likes of 19-year-old Lloyd Pope and 21-year-old Ben Manenti with the young spinners coming through the ranks. While he likes what he sees in the pair, he asked for patience as they develop into the future stars.
“I believe the spinning landscape is pretty healthy,” Lyon said. “There are obviously a lot of young exciting cricketers coming up like Ben Manenti and Lloyd Pope especially from the Sixers. There’s a big job we have as Australian cricketers, especially spin bowlers and coaches need to allow these guys to mature and learn the game before they get thrown into the deep end if I’m brutally honest. The Big Bash has been absolutely brilliant for spinners and I think the class of Pope and Manenti especially is starting to shine through. It’s pretty exciting.”
“I know I’ll be signing up to it and sitting at home either on a plane or whatever and being able to watch sport 24/7 and whatever sport I want – that’s one of the most exciting things about it. But it’s very exciting to be aligned with them.”
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