For many, Australia have won anything and everything in cricket, be it in Tests, ODIs, or T20Is. They have 10 ICC titles in senior cricket, four more than the next best, India. What many dream of doing, Australia has a habit of achieving.
Still, Australia’s legendary off-spinner Nathan Lyon feels that this Australian team is ‘not there yet’ on the journey towards greatness. He feels the voids towards that are a Test series win in England and India despite being the current World Test Championship winners.
“We want to become a great Australian team. We’re on that journey, we’re not there yet. That’s our end goal,” he said. “Part of that journey is making sure that when we close the window, we nail it shut. It’s all about being ruthless and doing our best thing for long periods of time.”
While they ended a decade-long wait to win the Border-Gavaskar trophy, the Aussies have not defeated India in India since Ricky Ponting led an Aussie side to a 2-1 win in 2004. They hold the Ashes, having drawn the series 2-2 in England but they haven’t registered an outright win on the English soil since 2001.
Lyon feels they have to achieve those things “There’s a few things [Australia needs to achieve],” Lyon said. “This is only me and my thoughts as well. We’ve got some great players within that change-room, there’s no point hiding behind that.”
Australia are currently on a trip to Sri Lanka for a two-match series. They handed Sri Lanka their biggest loss in tests in the first game when the visitors won by an innings and 242 runs. Australia’s next trip to the Asian subcontinent is in 2027 when they play India and hope to conquer the final frontier. Lyon is “100 per cent” hoping to be on that tour despite being 39 at that point in time.
He recently shared spin duties with fellow offspinners Todd Murphy and Matt Kuhnemann as they took 17 of the 20 wickets in the Galle Test against Sri Lanka. Lyon feels that they want to be ruthless.
“We’re going okay, but I still feel like we’ve got a lot of improvement to do. That’s about being ruthless,” Lyon said on himself and the other two offspinners. “We’re three totally different bowlers with three totally different mindsets as well. I feel like I’m learning from Todd and Matt, and I feel like they’re pushing me to try and get better as well. Hopefully, I’m passing on a little bit of knowledge here and there.”
