Australian cricket captain Pat Cummins has made it clear that the upcoming Ashes series against England will feature spinner Nathan Lyon prominently, effectively ruling out a four-fast-bowler strategy.
Lyon’s recent absence from Australia’s Test match against West Indies in Jamaica marked his first time missing a game in 12 years. Despite this, Australia secured a dominant victory in just three days, with Mitchell Starc taking six wickets for nine runs and Scott Boland achieving a hat-trick as West Indies collapsed for 27.
However, Cummins, currently recovering from a back injury ahead of the first Ashes Test in Perth on November 21, believes the Australian pitches will present a very different challenge.
“I’d find it very unlikely that we would go away from Gaz (Lyon) at all this summer,” Cummins told the Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday. He elaborated, “Kingston was extreme — pink-ball conditions, long grass, an up-and-down wicket.”
“I’d almost guarantee there won’t be four quicks this summer, especially with a couple of all-rounders in the team as well,” he added. “You probably need to look at the pitch and basically think it’s going to be a terrible two-and-a-half day, or a three-day pitch. In Kingston, we didn’t think the game was going to see a fourth day.”
Cummins stressed the importance of Lyon for home conditions: “Most games in Australia, even if it’s green, you think it could get flat and you’ll be wanting Gaz.”
Lyon boasts an impressive record on Australian soil, having taken 268 of his 562 Test wickets there, maintaining an average of 31.08. If he plays his 140th Test in Perth as anticipated, he is just two wickets shy of surpassing legendary pacer Glenn McGrath’s record, which would make him the sixth-highest wicket-taker in Test history.
Meanwhile, Cummins’ own fitness remains under scrutiny, as he recently indicated he was “probably less likely than likely” to participate in the opening Test.
England’s pace attack for the five-Test series includes Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Josh Tongue, Brydon Carse, and Mark Wood, with Shoaib Bashir as their sole specialist spinner. Lyon has already voiced his advice to England, cautioning against the potential exclusion of Bashir from their lineup.
“For me, you’re picking a spinner in every side because the variation changes the tempo of the game,” Lyon asserted earlier this month. England’s final selection for the Perth Test is still pending, but their spinners have historically found it challenging to perform effectively in Australian conditions.