Nathan Lyon believes the current Australia men’s team is on the cusp of installing itself as one of the nation’s genuinely great outfits, with the next step in realising that ambition to be taken later this week.
Having joined with spin-bowling partners Matt Kuhnemann and Todd Murphy to help inflict Sri Lanka’s biggest-ever Test defeat at Galle last Saturday, Lyon is eyeing Australia’s first clean-sweep of a campaign in Asia for almost 20 years.
Australia’s most recent whitewash on the subcontinent came in the two-Test series against Bangladesh in 2006, an era dominated by all-time greats the likes of skipper Ricky Ponting, Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist, Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie.
While Lyon notes the current Test team has notched some impressive achievements including the 2023 World Test Championship crown, retention of the Ashes (twice) in the UK and the recent Border-Gavaskar Trophy series win against India, he acknowledges there are gaps in its CV.
That includes a solitary Test series win in Asia over the past decade – the gruelling 1-0 triumph on flat decks in Pakistan three years ago.
However, having thumped Sri Lanka in the opening Test at Galle with the second to begin at the same venue on Thursday, Australia are motivated by their inability to get the job done from a similar position when they last visited the island in 2022.
On that occasion, a 10-wicket win in the first Test was reversed when the hosts produced a dominant batting display in the second to romp home by an innings and 39 runs.
“I was having a beer with Mitch Starc (post-game) and we spoke about that,” Lyon said in the aftermath of the first Test where he captured seven wickets to overtake India’s Ravichandran Ashwin for most Test scalps against Sri Lanka on their home turf.
“I feel like that’s a lot of motivation within this team.
“It’s about us on our journey to becoming a great team, to make sure we go 2-0 up.
“We’re on that journey, we’re not there yet but that’s our end goal.
“We want to be known as a great team, and part of that journey is when we close a window making sure we nail it shut, and we don’t let anyone back in.
“This is only me and my thoughts, but we’ve got some great players within that changeroom.
“You look at Smithy (Steve Smith) bringing up 10,000 runs, you’ve got Starcy who’s around the corner from 100 Test matches.
“And it’s not just the guys here, we’ve got some unbelievable players at home as well whether injured or on paternity leave.
“It’s a squad mentality and that’s how it should be.”
Among the players missing from the current Sri Lanka series due to injury and other factors are skipper Pat Cummins, fellow fast bowler Josh Hazlewood, and allrounders Cameron Green and Mitchell Marsh.
Quizzed further as to what would elevate the current group to the all-time levels achieved by earlier iterations under Ponting and Steve Waugh, Lyon nominated Test series wins in India and the UK.
Both of those possibilities lie ahead in 2027, with the record-breaking off-spinner – who now has 546 Test wickets and requires just 18 more to overtake McGrath in sixth place on the all-time list – having identified those upcoming five-Test tours as personal goals.
With the evolution of Kuhnemann and Murphy as genuine wicket-taking threats to complement Lyon’s potency on the subcontinent, Australia feel they have a rare opportunity to match Asian teams in their home conditions.
As Smith observed immediately after the first Test win, the incumbent spin trio “worked really well together” and, coupled with Australia’s huge batting innings of 6(dec)-654, enabled stand-in skipper Smith to maintain innovative fields and rotate through regular bowling changes.
The spin triumvirate played the first of their now-four Tests together in the second match of the 2023 campaign in India, and completed that series with a combined haul of 35 wickets – Lyon 22, Murphy 14 and Kuhnemann nine.
Australia have rarely deployed attacks that feature three specialist spinners, even on spin-friendly surfaces in Asia in the Middle-East preferring to maintain at least a couple of seamers with part-time spinners playing a bigger role.
That was certainly the case in the late 1960s when Ashley Mallett and John Gleeson were often partnered by top-order batters Bob Simpson and Bob Cowper, while off-spinning allrounder Greg Matthews, left-armer Ray Bright and leggie Bob Holland played a couple of Tests together in the mid-1980s.
But the previous occasion Australia fielded a bowling line-up built around three specialist tweakers was in several late 1930s Ashes contests with leg spinners Bill O’Reilly and Frank Ward plus left-arm wrist-spinner Chuck Fleetwood Smith.
“I think we all complement each other really well, with three totally different bowlers with three totally different mindsets as well,” Lyon said of the current spin trio.
“I feel like I’m learning off Todd and Matt, and I feel like they’re pushing me to try and get better as well.
“Hopefully I’m passing on a bit of knowledge here and there.
“It’s something I’ve really enjoyed off the back end of the last three Tests in India, to this Test match here (in Galle).
“And we’ve got two wins out of four Tests now (in Asia), so we’re going okay but I still feel like we’ve got a lot of improvement to make.”
Lyon added the spinners’ work has been rendered even more effective by keeper Alex Carey who he believes has been something of an unsung hero during the preceding subcontinent series in India and the recently completed win at Galle.
Carey became just the fourth Australia gloveman after Rod Marsh (against Pakistan at Lahore in 1980), Brian Taber (India at Kanpur 1969) and Wally Grout (Pakistan at Karachi 1969) to complete a Test in Asia without conceding a bye when the opposition has scored 400-plus runs in the match.
In claiming one catch and a hat-trick of stumpings at Galle, Carey also eclipsed his predecessor Tim Paine’s tally of 157 Test dismissals with his tally of 159 from 38 matches behind only Grout (187), Brad Haddin (270), Marsh (355), Ian Healy (395) and Adam Gilchrist (416).
“I think Alex Carey’s keeping flew under the radar when we went to India,” Lyon said of the gloveman whose current average of 2.21 dismissals per innings is surpassed by only Paine (2.31) among Australians to have kept in five or more Tests.
“His keeping in these conditions has been phenomenal.”
Lyon also confirmed he has playing under duress since the start of the India Test campaign at home, when he hurt his left hip in the opening match at Perth and aggravated it when making a sliding save in the field on day one of the final game in Sydney.
The 37-year-old revealed he had sustained a de-gloving injury whereby subdermal layers of tissue are torn away from the external skin above, and also detach from the fascia lata connective tissue that surrounds the thigh muscles and hip.
It is understood Lyon received a cortisone injection immediately after the Sydney Test and had around 20ml of blood drained from the affected area.
He claims he finds minimal discomfort when bowling, batting or fielding, although sitting for prolonged periods can prove painful.
“A unique injury with my left hip,” said Lyon, who on Saturday completed the rare honour of dismissing a rival batter – former Sri Lanka skipper Dinesh Chandimal – twice within a single session of play in a Test.
“I’m no physio or medical (person) but apparently it degloved, I ripped the deep tissue off the fascia whatever that means.
“A bit of excess blood in there, but all good, no stress.”