Ashes 2023 news: Nathan Lyon’s batting transformation, sledge that sparked first Test heroics
Australia pulled off an Ashes miracle in Edgbaston - and they had some unexpected motivation in the form of a sledge from England that triggered Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon’s heroics.
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Never has a schoolteacher taking a few days off helped Australia’s cricketing cause more than Brendan Lyon’s absence just before the Ashes.
Anyone who thought Nathan Lyon’s part in the most extraordinary tail-end partnership in Australian Test history at Edgbaston was a fluke, doesn’t understand the thousands of balls he has faced out of the arm of his personal batting coach … his older brother.
Brendan, a primary school teacher and accomplished cricket coach, is the man responsible for training Nathan to no longer see himself as a No.11 – as England’s Ollie Robinson labelled him – but as a batsman.
The GOAT Whisperer watched his brother’s day five heroics, contributing 16 not out in the stunning 55-run ninth-wicket match-clinching partnership with Pat Cummins, with a quiet confidence he would get the job done.
“Before this Ashes I took a day off school and went out and hit with him and I started to really notice it then, that all the work he’s put in was coming to fruition,” Brendan Lyon said from the UK where he is leading a group of 57 kids on a cricket tour.
“You know what, I was pretty nervous watching him, but I had this sense that I knew he’d done the work and I was just reminding myself, ‘he’s done the work, he’s done the work.’
“It was just so nice to see and that doesn’t necessarily always mean it’s going to come through, but I just knew. I knew he had that in him.
“I just know how much it means to him. Test cricket is his everything and he puts everything into it. Nothing happens by fluke.”
Lyon batted 28 balls to get Australia home in the first Test, but that’s not even a fraction of what he trained for leading into this Ashes.
When Lyon tonked Stuart Broad over mid-on for four to bring the target down into single figures, Brendan might have been the only person watching who wasn’t thinking, ‘where did that come from?’
“All my players, no matter what age they are, I want them to bat for 100 or 200 balls,” coach Brendan, whose coaching business is Lyon Cricket, said.
“I throw about 400 balls an hour, so they tend to hit that many, which is how everyone used to train but doesn’t happen as much now.
“I don’t use side arm. I just throw. Old school. I can throw more that way and it allows him to improve his swing and patterns.
“It’s not rocket science but it’s hard work. On the coach and player.
“It just builds muscle memory.
“(The straight drive off Broad for four) … that shot has also got Nathan out a bit that one, but we’ve been working on him keeping his shape for a bit longer and playing a bit straighter.
“Again that’s muscle memory. It’s reacting without even knowing he did it. That’s what doing the time will allow for. You can’t do it if you haven’t done the time.”
The timing of Robinson’s ill-timed comment mid-Test that Australia had “three No.11s” also didn’t hurt.
“That was very nice of Ollie to light that spark,” Brendan said.
“Without knowing it, he may have spurred Nathan.”
Not that he needed any added motivation.
Lyon was deeply haunted by the 2019 Ashes Test at Headingley when he fumbled a run-out chance in the frantic final moments of Ben Stokes’ epic run-chase, where England came from a near impossible position to triumph – so much so that he sought professional advice.
But the wheel turned at Edgbaston this week, when it was Stokes this time fumbling a difficult chance from Lyon in the outfield.
Four years’ on, it was the Australian spinner’s chance to feel the once-in-a-lifetime rush of what it’s like to pull off an all-time Test victory.
No one expects bowlers to dedicate time and energy into their batting – it’s not their job in the team – but Lyon’s rare dedication to leaving no stone unturned with his preparation is why redemption was earned at Edgbaston.
“He definitely carried it for a while (the Headingley run-out blunder), there’s no doubt about that,” Brendan said of Nathan’s pain from 2019.
“I think with the help of his sports psych and the like, he managed to put it aside and realised that it is a game and people make mistakes and under pressure you’re more likely to do it.
“You get knocked down, but you get back up and keep moving forward. The only way you do that is by having a dip, getting back in the fight and that’s where I think Nathan, through working on the farm with dad as kids and being out in the bush – that all plays into moulding who he is as a cricketer and the career he’s managed to forge.”
Lyon will play his 100th consecutive Test for Australia at Lord’s – a record of consistency and endurance that only six players have achieved.
The off-spinner only needs five wickets to eclipse the 500-wicket mark and further cement his legacy as an all-time great of the game.
Despite being at day one and four of the Edgbaston Test, Brendan missed day five – he was at the Littleborough cricket club near Halifax with his travelling party of three boys teams and one girls team.
But there was no place he would have rather been.
In the company of 57 kids, Brendan was able to experience the true power of his brother’s innings – an impact to inspire the next generation.
“Honestly it was just amazing to see … at the end, I had 50 odd kids out on the ground playing together,” Brendan said.
“Fifty seven kids who have been pulled together from all over and just becoming friends for life.
“It was an amazing afternoon. Something I’ll never forget.”
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