The new breed of ugly Aussie

Cricket’s new aesthetic is a rejection of the elegant and an embrace of the unlovable.

Spinner Nathan Lyon appeals for a wicket at Lord's

There is a new ugliness abroad in Australian cricket. It’s not the snarling, braying sort abandoned and denounced after the recent ‘troubles’. It is a new aesthetic, a rejection of the elegant and an embrace of the unlovable.

It’s the beauty of a bent nose. The cachet of a scar. It’s anti-fashion. It’s there in Nathan Lyon’s elevation to the pantheon of all-time great bowlers and his very presence in the team.

It’s there in Cameron Bancroft’s crazy-brave approach. It’s in his batting, his fielding, his meet-your-fist-with-his-face approach to the contest — teammates think he has a “screw loose”, they’re impressed and maybe just a little unsettled.

It is in one of Justin Langer’s favourite cliches: character over cover drives. It’s illuminated by the fact Steve Smith’s career figures will outstrip the more gifted and elegant AB de Villiers.

Eight years ago, Lyon’s angular frame was lit like an X-ray by the Galle sun as he ran in to bowl his first delivery in Test cricket. His was a fairytale journey from the curator’s sheds to the one festooned with baggy greens, bats and sponsors’ jock straps.

He breathed heavily, nervously, at the top of the mark, did the little jumps he does and delivered his first ball to Sri Lankan legend Kumar Sangakkara. It landed well, broke through the surface, turned, took the edge and was brilliantly caught at first slip by Michael Clarke.

Welcome to Test cricket.

Wicket first ball. Five-wicket haul by the time the innings was done. Mitchell Johnson caught one skied shot near the boundary. Ricky Ponting casually intercepted a scorcher in the ring. Brad Haddin urged from behind the stumps and Lyon capped it all off with a gymnastic caught and bowled.

Lyon began in another era. Haddin is now coaching the side. Sangakkara and Johnson watched him from the media space ship at Lord’s. Ponting is winging in to do the same for the last part of the series. Lyon bowls on. And now he ranks among the pantheon of the greats. At Lord’s his wicket tally drew up to that exclusive space where Dennis Lillee (355), Glenn McGrath (563) and Shane Warne (708) park their reputations.

If he resembles any it is McGrath, another flinty product of rural Australia, more bushel than bouquet. Paddock dry.

He waves away comparisons to the other three as if it's a blowfly too close to his face.

“It doesn’t sit well with me,” he said after day one. “In my eyes those guys are true legends of the game and I’m just some bloke trying to bowl off breaks.”

He breaks into a rehearsed patter about making Australians proud. It’s not his strength, but at least he doesn’t talk about playing for “Cricket Australia” anymore.

When you take a wicket with your first ball, five for in your first innings and find yourself on 355 and among the greats you would expect a career whose path is smooth and celebrated. Lyon’s was corrugated and the ride rattled the nerves. Only recently has he found the sort of speeds and vehicle that allow some comfort on unsealed roads. He’s says he hasn’t peaked yet, but if this is the top of his game there’s triumph in that. He’s found an unaffected control. He bowls one basic delivery a few ways. There’s no Hollywood, no smoke and mirrors, no elaborate deceptions, the faster straight ball that bowled Stuart Broad is as close as he gets to that voodoo.

Bancroft, like Lyon, keeps an emotional distance, there’s a strand of barbed wire up between him and the rest of life. He’s tracking off the known road.

He is not a pretty cricketer, but ugly is the new attractive. He bats with grit. His undefeated 92 in the all-Australia warm-up game — on a minefield wicket against seam bowlers straining to nail a place in the side — will become one of those legends of the 2019 Ashes even if he doesn’t make another run.

It was a crazy-brave four hours at the crease. Every other ball threatened to take your head off or crush the bones of your fingers.

Tim Paine was clear on the reasons why Bancroft succeeded where everybody else failed.

“What it showed is Bangers’ toughness,” he said later. “The reason the guys were getting stuck on the crease a lot is because the odd ball was jumping up at them … (the pitch was) bordering on dangerous. It wasn’t ideal.

“That can play on a guy’s mind … particularly when they are bowling the speeds our guys were. To keep going forward, to keep wearing balls on the body, he was superb. The boys think he has a bit of a screw loose but he seems to enjoy getting hit on the body, it seems to make him bat better.”

Bancroft fields like he bats. Andrew Faulkner’s story in this section expands further on his efforts, but know this: he hasn’t dropped one yet at short leg and he holds onto ones you shouldn’t get your hands to. The catch to remove Rory Burns was brilliant in its anticipation, athleticism and reaction. Steve Waugh labels him the best he has seen in that position and Steve O’Keefe said the same when he saw him there during the Australia A series four years ago.

He is fearless in the position. Others flinch and cower, he doesn’t appear to blink. He is crazy brave. Lyon said it after the first day and he’s said it before too.

“That catch was pretty special, but I’m not surprised by that catch,” he said.

“You see the amount of work that he does in there. He fields there for me, and he’s told me that he wants to catch a full-blooded sweep shot. And I think that’s absolutely nuts, but it’s hats off to him that he does the work and he gets the rewards in a spectacular catch like that.”

Robin Williams said it was never advisable to pick a fight with an ugly person as they have nothing to lose and the same may be said for those unfashionable cricketers whose approach is more grunge than Gucci.