Lion is waiting to settle the 10-year account with India
Nathan Lyon is waiting for a 10-year-old 'settlement' with India. His big strength is going to be the information from English spinner Tom Hartley. Australia
Lion is waiting to settle the 10-year account with India
Nathan Lyon is waiting for a 10-year-old 'settlement' with India. His big strength is going to be the information from English spinner Tom Hartley. Australia will face India in the five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy at the end of the year.
India have won the last four bilateral series between the two sides. Australia's last win was in the 2014-15 season. Australia has lost the last two series against India at home too. As a result many of the current team have no memory of winning the series against India.
India got a historic win against Australia last season 2020-21. India fell behind 1-0 after being bowled out for 36 runs in service Adelaide. After that, they won a great series against Australia despite playing almost as a second-tier team due to injuries and other reasons.
In between, Australia lost to India in the final of the ICC World Test Championship at the Oval last year, but the scar of not being able to win a bilateral series remains. Lion also reminded that, '10 years is an incomplete account actually. It's been a long time. And I know, this time, especially at home, we are very hungry to change that.
Lion, who is second in the list of most successful off-spinners in Test history, then added, "Don't get me wrong, India are a really star-studded team, very tough." But this time I am very hungry to change the result. Now to get the trophy back.'
Lion also mentioned about their changes in the last few years, 'It seems that we are a different team from the team of a few years ago. We are on our way to becoming a memorable Australian cricket team. Of course we didn't reach (the summit). But we are on that path and playing pretty good cricket.''
Beating India in that way is definitely a big challenge for Australia. Lion also praised them. The 36-year-old spinner has given them credit for finding world-class players in particular. Lion mentioned Yasaswi Jaiswal in this case. However, he also informed about the assistance received in dealing with him.
Lion recently played for Lancashire in county cricket in England. His teammate there was English spinner Tom Hartley, who recently played against India. "I haven't played against him (Joiswal) yet, but he will be a big challenge for all our bowlers," said Lion. The way they played against England, I saw it quite well. I think he played great. I had a good chat with Tom Hartley—how he played against each other. It's quite amazing.'
Lion then said, 'I love to talk about cricket. Talking to someone who has played Tests might give me something I didn't know about. There is a lot of knowledge floating around in cricket. We can always use something.'
Lions know that they may have to use something like that against England in the next Ashes. But for now his plan is around India. In response to the question whether talks with Hartley would be useful or not, he said, "The plans that we have discussed, if they are implemented, they will certainly be useful."
