Nathan Lyon, an Australian spinner, has invented some mystery balls with which he intends to baffle England batsmen during the next Ashes series, which begins on December 8 at the Gabba.
Lyon hasn’t played cricket since April when he was left out of Australia’s limited-overs tours of the West Indies and Bangladesh, and he’s also not in the T20 World Cup squad, so he’s used the time to work on some new variations that he’ll debut against England.
“A couple of mystery balls, always got a couple of mystery balls,” the off-spinner said when asked about what new he has for the Ashes series.
“That’s been the beauty about this pre-season, it’s been my first ever proper pre-season. I’ve been able to do a lot of fitness work and a lot of skills work.
“I’ve already started looking at a couple of England’s batters, so that’s exciting,” he was quoted as saying by the Australian Associated Press (AAP).
Lyon had a concussion scare earlier this week after “headbutting the ground” in a fielding error that drew blood and forced him to miss two days of New South Wales’ intra-squad competition, according to the report.
Lyon, who needs one more Test wicket to reach 400 for his career, is expected to play in the Sheffield Shield match against Victoria at Sydney’s Drummoyne Oval next week.
When asked about England’s squad, particularly skipper Joe Root, who has been in superb form in recent series against India, Lyon, who had previously voiced hope that Australia could “end some careers” before the 2017-18 Ashes, acknowledged it would be a new challenge.
“They’ve got some very talented batters early in their Test careers,” he said. “Look at Ollie Pope’s last red-ball game. He got a pretty big double-hundred.
“It’s going to be a different challenge for these guys, coming out to Australia and we want that. We want to challenge these guys for long periods of time,” said Lyon.
(With IANS inputs)