India’s Ravichandran Ashwin and Australia’s Nathan Lyon might be two fierce competitors on the field, but there remains mutual admiration between them that the cricket world is in awe of. Time and against Ashwin and Lyon have narrated how the two have pushed each other to scale greater heights in the longest format of the game. Ahead of the start of the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 series in Perth, Lyon has once again doffed his hat to Ashwin, who has been a kind of ‘coach’ for him.
“Ash is an incredible bowler,” Lyon told Fox Cricket. “I’ve gone head-to-head with him for basically my whole career, so I’ve learned a lot from Ash. He’s an incredibly smart bowler, and he’s able to learn and adapt very quickly, and I think the best bowlers in the world are able to do that.”
“He’s taught me a lot,” Lyon admitted. “I’m a big believer that the players you compete against are your best coaches. I’ve watched a lot of his footage heading over to India, the way he goes about it here in Australia, and see if I can pick up anything.”
Speaking of his success on the field, Lyon refused to delve into the details, saying India’s Ravindra Jadeja might come to know of his secrets.
“I know Jadeja reads all of this stuff, so I can’t really share all my secrets.”
But, Lyon did jump into the details, explaining why he has been so successful Down Under. “My big thing is spinning up the back of the ball and getting bounce, but it’s a hard craft to be able to do that in Australia. Your margin for error is extremely small,” he said.
Australia have not won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against India since the 2014-15 campaign but are confident going into the series this time.
“India’s got the wood over us in the past few series, but if you’re looking at the World Test Championship (final) in England, we were able to beat them there, and I know that should give us a bit of confidence heading into this summer,” Lyon said.
“I feel like we’re on the journey to becoming a great team. We’re not there yet, there’s a bit of work to do, but we have the opportunity to do something pretty special this summer.”
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