Australia is determined to resolve a decade of unfinished business in their pursuit of reclaiming the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Australia has not held the Border-Gavaskar Trophy since the 2014-15 series, which they won 2-0. Since then, they have suffered consecutive series defeats to India on home soil. Notably, in the 2020-21 series, India famously rebounded from being bowled out for 36 in Adelaide to secure the series with remarkable victories at Melbourne Cricket Ground and Gabba, along with a gritty draw in Sydney.
For this generation of Australian cricketers, a series win over India remains a significant unachieved goal. Current captain Pat Cummins, along with others, has yet to lift the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, despite claiming the World Test Championship (WTC) title in the one-off match at The Oval last year.
“It’s been ten years of unfinished business, it’s been a long time, and I know we’re extremely hungry to turn things around especially here at home,” Lyon was quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
“Don’t get me wrong, India is an absolute superstar side and extremely challenging but I’m extremely hungry to turn things around and make sure we get that trophy back,” he added.
“Feel like we are a different team to a couple of years ago, we are on a journey of becoming a great Australian cricket team. We’re definitely not there but we are along that journey and have been playing some decent cricket,” the 36-year-old off-spinner said.
Lyon praised India’s ability to produce some world-class players and singled out Yashasvi Jaiswal among the newer names.
“I haven’t come across him [Jaiswal] yet, but that will be a massive challenge for all us bowlers,” Lyon said.
Nathan Lyon is eager to leverage the insights he gained from England’s Tom Hartley during his time with Lancashire as he prepares to face India later this year.
“The way he played against England, I watched that quite closely and thought that was quite amazing. I had some really good chats with Tom Hartley about different ways he went about it to different guys which I found quite interesting,” he noted.
“I love talking about cricket, so if I can talk to someone who has played Test cricket I might be able to pick up something I’m not aware of. There’s so much knowledge floating around this game that we can always tap into,” he said.
Lyon knows that this could work in reverse for next year’s Ashes, but when asked if he thought the conversations about India would prove valuable, he added, “If the plans we’ve spoken about come true, then I think it will be.”
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