‘I did that on purpose’: Lyon comes clean on tactical sledging ahead of Bazball Ashes bout

Upon hearing that England were talking up tactical sledging during their hot-tempered recent series against India, Nathan Lyon’s eyebrows raised with amusement, but also recognition.

It’s been eight years since Lyon was the author of his own premeditated barrage, an episode that still crops up when England talk of touring Australia.

“Could we end some careers? I hope so,” Lyon had said in a series of pointed remarks to the touring English press that recall a very different time in the battle for the Ashes.

For one thing, England held the urn in 2017, after winning comfortably at home in 2015. It was also not so long since they had won a series in Australia, a resounding 3-1 triumph in 2010-11, with a trio of innings victories that heralded enormous introspection down under.

And the Australian team assembling in Brisbane that November had already been subjected to plenty of criticism from within, after the selectors surprised many by picking Tim Paine and Cameron Bancroft to start the series. Lyon wished to turn the tables as well as the ball.

“Looking back at that, I did that on purpose,” Lyon told this masthead 100 days out from the first ball of the Ashes, on November 21 in Perth. “I wanted to make it about England, take a lot of pressure off ‘Painey’ and Cam Bancroft. Painey was coming back into the side, Cam was making his debut, so there was a lot of pressure on our batting group, especially those young guys.

“I felt like my game was in a really good area, where I could be confident in backing up my skill [with words]. I wanted to take some pressure off them. That’s part of the game – I think I did that, all the attention came to me, which is all right.

“I’ve always had the approach that I’ll do whatever it takes for this team, and whatever my role needs, whether it is taking heat, I’m more than happy to do that, or bowling off-breaks or going out and doing nightwatchman.”

Between a shot-making English top seven and the increasingly spicy nature of pitches in Australia, 37-year-old Lyon is in for an Ashes summer to remember.

As for the prospect of England coming to Australia with a more loudmouthed persona than in the past, Lyon is up for the verbals – even as he detects some evolution in Bazball from pure entertainment to something harder-edged.

“That’s the way they’re playing their cricket, which is totally fine by me. It’s shaping up for one hell of a summer,” he said. “I think their approach has changed a little bit. They’ve got some stars in their cricket side who can win games of cricket off their own back. Joe Root, Ben Stokes and these guys.

“But it looks to me like they’ve totally changed their approach, and they’re trying to think about how to win games of cricket rather than just being pure entertainers. And they’ve played some decent cricket over the last little while.”

There has been some impatience with Bazball in the UK, now that four English Test summers have passed without a series victory over India or Australia. It was that kind of criticism, from within, that Lyon was responding to in 2017.

In the days leading up to those comments, his ears had been stung by the commentary of many, but none more so than the late Shane Warne.

“Australia look confused. They’re picking wicketkeepers that aren’t even keeping for their state,” Warne said at the time. “To me, I think England are in a better situation going into that first Test than what Australia are. At the moment, the biggest shift ... over the last few years, is they don’t fear Australia any more.”

Lyon’s attack on England made him the focus of several days’ commentary.

Former captain Nasser Hussain suggested “he was trying to deflect from the bad week Australia have had as far as selection has gone”.

If it was a deflection, as Lyon has now agreed, it worked better than a Glenn Maxwell switch-hit. Lyon took 21 wickets for the series, still his best return in an Ashes bout, and strangled England’s scoring rate in a 4-0 outcome. England lost by the same margin here in 2021-22.

Naturally, Lyon believes that spin is essential to winning a series in Australia. Moreover, he warns that the global cupboard for tweakers is getting harder to replenish because of a preponderance of grassy pitches – the kinds of conditions that saw Lyon dropped for Scott Boland in the Caribbean.

This week, Lyon has been hosting a series of spin-bowling seminars in regional New South Wales, where prospective cricketers are schooled not only on bowling, but also insights on management and fitness.

“I do care about spin bowling and I’m not saying this because I’m concerned about my position in the team,” Lyon said. “I know my role, I know how important spin bowling is, but there is a degree of me that’s concerned about spin bowling around the world, not just Australia, with the wickets we’re playing on.

“If you look at spin bowling and your younger spin bowlers around the country whether they’re not getting the overs or the opportunities to bowl on day-three, day-four wickets, or spinning wickets, or even green seamers because the fast bowlers are dominating.

“Everyone focuses on the first 10 overs of a game and then usually the last couple of overs and how to win a game. But there’s a big part of the game where it can be quite hard to create chances or change the momentum of the game, and I feel like spin bowlers have the opportunity to do that. So I’m always going to fight for spin bowlers, and that’s my biggest concern.”

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