The advice that helped Nathan Lyon get to 100 consecutive Tests

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On Australia’s tour to England in 2013, Nathan Lyon appeared to have the least secure future of the numerous young bowlers chosen for their first Ashes trip.

James Pattinson? A fast bowling jet with years ahead of him. Ashton Agar? A teenaged superstar in the making. James Faulkner? A white-ball maestro with multiple Test matches in his sights.

Lyon, by contrast, seemed to be drifting out of the picture, with the selectors unconvinced that the 25-year-old had learned quickly enough to merit their loyalty. Lyon’s security in the team looked to be disappearing as rapidly as his hair.

Nathan Lyon in his typically pleading appeal pose.Credit: Getty

“Back then I got told I couldn’t bowl to right-handers,” Lyon said as he prepared to become the first specialist bowler in Test history to play 100 consecutive matches. At 495, he is also within touching distance of 500 Test wickets.

So it was that Agar played at Trent Bridge and Lord’s, leaving Lyon to sit on the end of Brad Haddin’s hotel room bed and ponder what might happen next.

“It’s a weird feeling when you get dropped, especially as a young cricketer, young in your international career,” Lyon said. “You tend to think your career is done, what are you going to do next, will my family still love you and all that stuff.

“It wasn’t until Brad said, ‘mate, you just need to talk to the selectors and find out what the reason why was and go out and prove them wrong’. I did that, I’m proud of that, and proud of the way I went about it.”

Over the weeks that followed, Lyon took special care to bowl to then captain Michael Clarke at every opportunity, one of the best players of spin bowling that Australia has ever produced. So keenly did Lyon pursue Clarke in the nets that the team’s bevvy of left-handers, such as Chris Rogers, Ed Cowan and a young Usman Khawaja, pleaded for more bowling as they battled against England’s Graeme Swann.

“I just followed Michael Clarke for the next couple of weeks at training and bowling to him,” Lyon said. “The rest of the batters were getting the shits on because they wanted to face Graeme Swann and all I wanted to do was bowl to right-handers.

“It’s part of my journey and was really good advice at that stage to allow me to try and get better and figure out how to get better. It’s been an incredible journey.”

Lyon’s evolution is underlined by plenty of numbers, not least how, with eight wickets at Edgbaston, his average has now ticked under 31 runs per wicket for the first time since 2012. His physical durability has been remarkable, as has his resilience.

Nathan Lyon in England in 2013.Credit: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images

Among numerous memorable performances, a moment that sums up Lyon very well is how he responded to dropping the ball over the stumps when Ben Stokes was on his way to winning the 2019 Headingley Test single-handedly.

Next delivery, with the beautiful rhythm that imparts significant spin and drop at a tricky pace for batters, Lyon fooled Stokes on the sweep and struck the left-hander very much in front of the stumps. It was not Lyon’s fault that Joel Wilson gave it not out, nor that Australia had burned their final review.

That composure was worth remembering when he stood up to the Bazball advances of England’s top seven in Birmingham, even having Joe Root stumped for the first time in the Yorkshireman’s career.

As important is how Lyon’s role in the team has grown in parallel with his presence in Australian cricket. Not only does he speak with real knowledge about the need to support the group of young spin bowlers who will follow him, but he was also instrumental in helping Ash Gardner developed the off-spin she used to destroy England’s fourth innings in the women’s Test at Trent Bridge on Monday.

“I actually sent her a message last night [after day four] saying ‘that’s nice Ash, real nice’,” Lyon said, having worked with Gardner in the nets they share for NSW over several years to bowl a more attacking line and impart extra overspin.

“Full credit to Ash and the girls, it’s a massive win. And something they should be really proud of. So I’m hoping that they’re out celebrating like they should.”

Celebrating is another part of the story, for in the same year Lyon was dropped, Mike Hussey had bequeathed him the role of singing the Australian team’s victory chant, Under the Southern Cross.

“‘I’m not nearly as nervous as what I was when I first got it,” he said. “But yeah, that’s another really humbling moment, when ‘Huss’ gave me the honour of leading that team song. I feel like it’s level pegging with the captain, if you ask me, to have that honour to lead the team song for each and every individual inside that team, including the staff.”

Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon share victory.Credit: Getty

A further testament to Lyon’s mental wherewithal arrived in the closing stages of the Edgbaston triumph, where he joined captain Pat Cummins with 54 runs still to get. Cummins’ reassuring words – “we’ve put on 50 before so let’s do it again” – were holding sway for the first 20 or so runs until the umpire Marais Erasmsus chimed in.

“I didn’t think about it until Marais, the umpire, said ‘this is a bit similar to Headingley, isn’t it?’ Thanks Marais, that’s one way to calm my nerves,” Lyon deadpanned. “But Pat and I didn’t talk about it. Pat was really calm.

“Every time us bowlers tend to bat we try to lighten each other’s mood up a bit and try to get us to smile and relax a little bit. Pat played a pretty amazing role just with me personally. But thanks Marais, I wasn’t thinking about Headingley until that moment. We still needed about 30…”

A belief in continuous improvement is a common touchstone among many a high performer in 2023, and Lyon enters the Lord’s Test with a clear message for the team. Australia may have won in Birmingham, but it was not a vintage performance.

“I don’t think we’re at our best at Edgbaston,” he said. “I feel like we’ve got a lot of improvement to do. We know that we love playing here at Lord’s. It’s the home of cricket, level pegging with Adelaide in my eyes, but we’ll come out and enjoy it and see how we go.”

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