Not Steve Smith, not Pat Cummins, not Scott Boland – former Australia head coach Justin Langer predicts veteran off-spinner Nathan Lyon to “be the difference” in the upcoming, highly-anticipated Ashes 2023 series against England.
The 5-Test Ashes 2023 series will kick-start this Friday at Edgbaston, Birmingham. Australia are the current holders of the Ashes Urn having hammered England 4-0 at home in 2021/22 series. On their 2019 tour of England, the series was drawn 2-2 with Australia retainingthe Urn.
Ashes 2023 promises to be an exciting one. While England, the hosts, are on a high of their Bazball success of winning 11 matches and losing only 2, Australia recently attained the tag of the World Test Champions by defeating India in the WTC Final 2023 at The Oval, which became the best pre-Ashes preparation Australia would have hoped for.
“Not that easy to smash Nathan Lyon”: Justin Langer
Langer, who was the coach of the Australian team in their last two Ashes series, hailed Nathan Lyon ahead of the upcoming rubber. Langer worked with Lyon at close quarters during his tenure as Australia’s head coach from 2018 to 2022.
While Australia have a number of match winners, including Smith, Cummins, now Boland and Travis Head, it is Lyon who Langer reckons would be the point of difference in Ashes 2023 series. The former Aussie opener added that England would be keen on attack Lyon, but it won’t be as easy as they might think to go after the veteran off-spinner.
“You hear ‘they are just going to smash Nathan Lyon,’” Langer told The Telegraph. “But I was watching this week and Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli. And I’m going, it’s not that easy to do. I think he could be the difference in the series.
“England don’t have a world-class spinner. That’s no disrespect to Moeen [Ali]. He’s a good offie, but he’s not Nathan Lyon. I never realised until I started coaching Australia how good a bowler Nathan Lyon is. He’s a very, very good bowler. Hard to get away, and incredibly important to Australia. Not only does he take wickets, but he bowls a lot of overs and traditionally holds up one end.”
Hailed as the GOAT Australian off-spinner, Lyon has taken 487 Test wickets in his career, 101 of them are of English batters. In England, he has taken 50 wickets in 14 Tests at an average of 29.
