[8:04 AM, 11/19/2024] divyansh Mishra Airtel: Ravichandran Ashwin of India and Nathan Lyon of Australia may be fierce rivals on the cricket field, but they still share a mutual respect for one another that is appreciated by the cricketing fraternity. Over the last few years, Ashwin and Lyon have spoken about the fierce rivalries and competitions that have helped them improve in the longest format of the game. Ahead of the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 series, Lyon has once again taken off his cap in honor of Ashwin, who has been more or less like a ‘coach’ for him, in Perth.
“Ash is a bowler that you do not take lightly,” Lyon was quoted as saying by Fox Cricket . “I have been playing against him for quite a large period of my career, thus, Ash has some great lessons for me. He is a very crafty bowler, and he learns and adjusts as fast as one can, and I think the top bowlers in the world are able to do just that.”
“He has instructed me quite a bit,” Lyon acknowledged. “I’m a firm advocate that the people you’re trying to outplay are the best teachers. I’ve seen plenty of footage of him going to India, the way things are done over here in Australia, and tried to see if there’s anything I can learn from that.”
On the other hand, when I asked Lyon to talk about his accomplishments and achievements on the pitch, he did not provide any conclusions; perhaps because he was aware of the dangers of revealing inside information, especially to someone like Ravindra Jadeja of India.
“I am certain that Jadeja pays attention to all this, therefore I cannot expose everything about my strategies.”
However, Lyon did provide details as to why his work was quite successful in Australia. “I guess my big thing is about spinning up the back of the ball and getting it to bounce, but it is a quite difficult art to perfect in Australia. The scope for error is very small,” he explained.
Australia have not secured the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against India since the 2014-15 season, but have gone into the series this time with a sense of confidence.
“India has the wood on us in the last few series but if you are talking about the World Test Championship (final) in England, we managed to win there and that I believe should give us some confidence going into this summer. ” – Lyon stated.
I think we are on the path to becoming a good team. We are not there yet because there is some work to be done, but the opportunity to achieve something pretty special is there this summer.”
